im 


MIND    IN    THE    LOWEE 
ANIMALS 

IN    HEALTH    AND    DISEASE 


BY 

W.   LAUDER    LINDSAY,   M.D. 

F.R.S.E.,  F.L.S. 

RARY      MEMBER      OF      THK      NEW     ZEALAND       INST1TUTH 


f  7 


VOL.  I. 
MIND    IN    HEALTH 


NEW    YORK: 
D.     APPLETON     AND     COMPANY, 

1880. 


1908 


fc'T 


TO 

THE     MEMORY     OF 

MY    FATHEE 

WHO,    OF   ALL    MY    MANY   CORRESPONDENTS,    WAS    SURPASSED    BY    NONE, 
EITHER    IN    HIS    GENEROUS,    GENIAL,    AND    GENUINE 

SYMPATHY    WITH    THE    DOMESTIC    ANIMALS, 
OR    IN    THE    SOUND,    LIBERAL,    AND    PHILOSOPHICAL    VIEWS 

WHICH     HE    HELD    AND    EXPRESSED 

REGARDING    THE    NATURE    AND    EXTENT    OP 

ANIMAL    REASON 


CONTENTS 

OP 

THE    FIRST    VOLUME. 


INTRODUCTION xi 

COMPAEATIYE   PSYCHOLOGY. 

GENERAL      CONSIDERATIONS,     INCLUDING     THE 
METHODS  OF  ENQUIRY. 

CHAPTER 

I.  Kesults  of  Human  Ignorance,  Error,  and  Prejudice    ...  3 

II  Faults  and  Fancies  of  Terminology 11 

HI.  Authenticity  of  Anecdotes  of  Animal  Sagacity   .        .        .        .  18 

IV.  Study  by  Observation  and  Experiment            29 

V.  The  Dawn  of  Mind  in  Man  :  Mental  Condition  of  Children  and 

Savages 37 

VI.  Evolution  of  Mind  in  the  Ascending  Zoological  Scale  :— I.  The 

Invertebrata 51 

VII.     Evolution  of  Mind  in  the  Ascending  Zoological  Scale  :— LT.  The 

Vertebra 69 

VIII.     Animal  Reputation 82 

IX.    Alleged  Psychical  Differences  between  Man  and  other  Animals  .  100 

X.    Alleged  Intellectual  and  Moral  Supremacy  of  Man        .        .     .  118 

XL    Inter-Eelations  of  Instinct  and  Eeason 126 

XII.     Unsolved  Problems  in  the  Psychology  of  the  Lower  Animals       .  142 


Viii  CONTENTS  OF   THE  FIRST   VOLUME. 


MIND    IN    THE    LOWER    ANIMALS: 

IN  ITS  NORMAL  MANIFESTATIONS. 

MORALITY    AND    RELIGION. 

CHAPTEK  PAGE 

I.     The  Moral  Sense  in  Lower  Man 163 

II.     The  Moral  Sense  in  other  Animals 175 

III.  Moral  Merit  and  Demerit 186 

IV.  Moral  Responsibility 193 

V.     Religious  Feeling  in  Lower  Man 202 

VI.     Religious  Feeling  in  other  Animals 218 


EDUCATION    AND    ITS    RESULTS. 

VII.     Capacity  for  Education 234 

VIII.     Self -Education  :  the  Acquisition  of   Knowledge  by  Investi- 
gation     ....  246 

IX.     Education  of  Animals  by  Man 257 

X.     Education  of  Animals  by  each  other 274 


LANGUAGE. 

XI.     Language  in  Lower  Man ,  281 

XII.    Language  in  other  Animals 289 

XIII.  Vocal  Language 299 

XIV.  Non- Vocal  Language 307 

XV.    Laughter  and  Weeping 314 

XVL    Expressiveness  of  Animal  Language 326 

XVII.  Intelligibility  of  each  other's  Language       .        .        .        .334 

XVIII.  Animal  Motives  and  their  Interpretation  by  Man    .         .     .  338 

XIX.     Understanding  of  Human  Language 346 


CONTENTS   OF  THE   FIRST   VOLUME. 


ADAPTIVENESS. 


CHAPTER 

XX.  v  General  Adaptiveness    . 

XXI.  Organisations    . 

XXII.  Law  and  Punishment    . 

XXIII.  Use  of  Natural  Instruments 

XXIV.  Use  of  Man's  Instruments     . 
XXV.  Use  of  Clothing  and  Shelter 

XXVI.  Preparation  of  Food      . 

XXVII.  Faculty  of  Numeration     . 

XXVIII.  Power  of  Calculation    . 

XXIX.  Courtship  and  Marriage    . 

XXX.  Foster  Parentage  . 


PAGE 

357 
377 
397 
409 
429 
440 
446 
451 
454 
468 


FALLIBILITY. 

XXXI.  Liability  to  Error 

XXXII.  Commission  of  Error 

XXXIII.  Commission  of  Error — continued  . 

XXXIV.  Deception 

XXXV.  PracticalJokes 


488 
498 
512 
523 
537 


INTKODUCTION. 


A  VAEIETT  OP  CONSIDERATIONS  seems  to  me  to  render  it  de- 
sirable that  I  should  explain  shortly  the  circumstances  under 
which,  the  following  work  has  been  written.  On  the  one  hand, 
for  instance,  the  value  of  an  author's  opinion  on  a  given 
subject  necessarily  depends  on  his  qualifications  for  forming 
and  expressing  an  opinion ;  which  qualifications  include  the 
natural  bias  of  his  mind,  the  direction  in  which  his  mental 
qualities  have  been  cultivated,  the  nature  and  extent  of  his 
opportunities  for  observation,  with  the  degree  to  which  he  has 
availed  himself  of  his  opportunities,  the  extent  and  variety 
of  his  teaching — in  other  words,  his  special  experience  and 
aptitude  -in  the  investigation  of  the  said  subject. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  subject  of  Mind  in  the  Lower 
Animals  is  one  that  has  from  time  immemorial  been  re- 
garded, if  not  studied,  from  the  most  different  points  of 
view,  and  one  that  will  doubtless  continue  to  be  so  regarded. 
Theologians,  metaphysicians,  psychologists,  physiologists, 
naturalists,  physicians,  veterinarians,  philosophers  so  called 
of  the  most  diverse  views  and  feelings,  naturally  and  neces- 
sarily approach  such  a  subject  actuated  by  the  most  conflict- 
ing motives  and  opinions,  by  prejudice  the  most  unreason- 
able, by  ignorance  the  most  profound. 

Now,  I  have  studied  the  subject  of  mind  in  other  ani- 
mals as  compared  with  that  of  man,  for  a  series  of  years, 
simply  as  a  physician-naturalist. 

As  a  physician  it  has  been  the  special  business  of  my 
professional  life  to  deal  practically  with  the  phenomena  of 
abnormal  mentalisation  in  man — a  circumstance  that  has 


xii  INTRODUCTION. 

naturally  involved  a  careful  study  of  his  normal  mentalisa- 
tion,  and  of  the  whole  range  of  phenomena  exhibited  by  the 
nervous  system  in  health  and  disease. 

More  than  twenty  years  ago  it  fell  to  my  lot  to  conduct 
a  series  of  investigations  in  comparative  pathology,  the  general 
object  and  result  of  which  was  to  show  that  the  lower  animals 
are  subject  to  the  same  kinds  of  bodily  disease  as  those  which 
affect  man.  At  that  time  I  had  in  Edinburgh  occasion  to 
experiment,  for  instance,  on  the  transmission  of  disease 
from  man  to  the  lower  animals,  and  from  them  to  him ; 
on  the  artificial  induction  of  human  disorders  in  the  lower 
animals ;  and  on  the  comparative  action  of  poisons  on  the 
human  and  animal  systems.  Latterly  my  studies  in  com- 
parative pathology  have  been  determined  in  the  direction  of 
psychopathology.  I  was  led  in  the  first  place  to  enquire  what 
relation  madness  in  the  lower  animals  bears  to  insanity  in 
man,  the  result  being  the  conviction  that  the  lower  animals 
are  subject  to  the  same  kinds  of  mental  disorders,  producible 
by  the  same  causes,  as  in  man.  This  enquiry  formed  but  the 
precursor  to  a  much  more  comprehensive  investigation  of 
the  normal  phenomena  of  mind  throughout  the  animal  kingdom. 

My  general  conclusions,  as  regards  both  normal  and 
disordered  mind  in  the  lower  animals,  were  made  public  in 
a  number  of  papers  in  certain  London  quarterly  medical 
and  other  reviews  and  journals  in  1871-72.  These  pub- 
lished papers  having  attracted  the  notice  of  the  promoters 
of  the  International  Scientific  Series  of  volumes  on  current 
subjects  of  scientific  interest,  I  was  invited  to  contribute  to 
that  series  a  volume  on  '  Mind  in  the  Lower  Animals ; '  which 
invitation,  though  at  first  disposed  to  decline  on  account  of 
the  very  limited  professional  leisure  I  could  devote  to  a 
systematic  exposition  of  my  enquiries  and  their  results,  with 
the  unfavourable  nature  for  book-making  of  my  daily  avoca- 
tions and  of  my  provincial  (country)  residence,  I  was  finally, 
after  much  correspondence,  induced  to  accept.  I  did  not, 
however,  feel  disposed  to  come  prominently  before  the  public 
without  a  still  further  and  more  careful  study  of  the  whole 
subject  of  the  animal,  including  the  human,  mind,  healthy 
and  diseased.  In  particular,  feeling,  with  John  Stuart  Mill 


INTRODUCTION,  xiii 

that  *  a  precise  knowledge  of  what  is  already  known  is  now 
an  indispensable  requisite  for  carrying  knowledge  further,' l 
I  set  myself  to  the  careful  perusal— note-taking  the  while— 
of  the  chief  types  of  books  which  have  been  published 
relating  to  the  habits  of  animals — a  task  which,  along  with 
the  arrangement  of  the  resultant  notanda,  has  occupied  all 
my  leisure  for  several  years. 

As  a  naturalist  I  have  long  been  accustomed  to  the 
patient  and  minute  observation  of  facts,  and  to  scientific 
generalisation  from  facts.  I  have  been  trained  to  separate 
fact  on  the  one  hand  from  fiction.,  and  from  inference  based 
upon  observation,  on  the  other.  As  regards  the  habits  of 
animals,  I  have  had  the  same  opportunities  that  all  persons 
possess  in  this  country  of  observing  mental  phenomena  in 
domestic  animals — such  as  the  dog,  horse,  cat,  ox,  fowl,  and 
in  cage  birds  or  other  house  pets.  But  I  have  also  had  the 
opportunity — which  only  foreign  travel  affords — of  observing, 
if  not  studying,  the  manners  of  domestic  and  wild  ani- 
mals in  many  distant  and  different  parts  of  the  world — in- 
cluding parts  of  Europe  between  Iceland  in  the  north,  and 
Spain  and  Italy  in  the  south  ;  of  Africa,  including  especially 
Morocco  and  Egypt ;  of  Asia  (to  wit,  Syria)  ;  of  America,  in- 
cluding part  of  the  United  States  and  the  Canadas;  of  Austra- 
lasia, including  New  Zealand  and  New  South  Wales.  The 
animals  observed  included,  for  instance,  the  buffalo  and  the 
camel,  in  addition  to  those  above  mentioned.  I  have,  more- 
over, visited — sometimes  repeatedly —the  principal  zoologi- 
cal gardens,  or  menageries,  in  the  world — such  as  those  of 
London,  Paris  (including  the  Jardin  des  Plantes  and  the 
Jardin  d'Acclimatation  prior  to  the  siege  of  Paris  by  the 
Prussians  in  1870-71),  Berlin,  Dresden,  New  York,  Dublin, 
Sydney,  New  South  Wales,  and  that  which  formerly  existed 
in  Edinburgh — and  have  thus  seen  in  the  captive  state  large 
numbers  of  wild  animals,  representing  the  ferce  natures  of  all 
quarters  of  the  globe. 

Regarding    the    whole    subject    of    mind    in    animals 

1  In    a   posthumous  letter  published  in  the  '  Athenasum '  of  November 
1873,  p.  563. 


xiv  INTRODUCTION. 

from  a  medical  and  natural  history  point  of  view,  I  have 
studied  it  from  first  to  last  without  any  preconceived  ideas 
— with  no  theory  tp  defend,  support,  or  illustrate — and 
ready  throughout,  without  effort  or  regret,  to  renounce  any 
belief  which  fact  or  truth  might  show  to  be  scientifically 
untenable. 

In  the  course  of  my  enquiries  I  have  amassed  far  too 
large  a  body  of  notes  to  condense  into  a  single  volume.  These 
notes  consist  of  (1)  excerpts  from  my  readings  in  books,  whose 
nature  and  names  will  be  found  specified  in  the  Biblio- 
graphy ;  (2)  reflections  or  criticisms  on  the  statements 
made  by  the  authorities  consulted ;  (3)  correspondence  re- 
sulting from  the  publication  by  authors  of  doubtfully  correct 
records  of  facts,  or  from  the  confusion  of  fact  and  fiction  in 
narrative ;  (4)  my  own  observations  ;  and  (5)  reports  taken 
down  by  me  on  the  spot,  or  immediately  after  hearing  them, 
of  oral  descriptions  given  by  eye-witnesses  of  incidents  illus- 
trative of  animal  sagacity.  In  the  present  volumes — popular 
as  they  are  in  their  aim  and  limited  in  their  size — all  that  I 
attempt  is  to  outline  the  subject  of  Mind  in  the  Lower  Animals, 
to  illustrate  their  possession  of  the  higher  -mental  faculties 
as  they  occur  in  man,  of  reason  as  contradistinguished  from 
mere  instinct. 

The  work  is  to  be  regarded  simply  as  what  the  French 
call  a  '  memoire  pour  servir.'  It  is  but  a  contribution  and 
introduction  to  the  subject  of  which  it  treats,  and  aims  only 
at  indicating  to  the  student  (1)  the  spirit  and  direction  in 
which  the  said  subject  ought  to  be  investigated;  (2)  the 
claims  it  has  on  man's  attention  ;  (3)  the  desirability  of 
an  exact  separation  of  what  we  do  from  what  we  do  not 
already  know — that  first  condition  of  all  true  knowledge ; 
(4)  the  new  significance  of  certain  facts  as  interpreted  by 
the  light  of  modern  science ;  and  (5)  that  facts  which  con- 
trovert current  popular  fallacies  or  errors  are  nevertheless 
facts.  The  present  work  offers  a  certain  rough  classification 
of  the  facts  of  observation  as  already  recorded,  so  as,  it  is 
hoped,  to  bring  out  their  relative  importance  or  significance ; 
which  classification  may  assist  the  reader  still  further  to 
pursue  the  study  of  the  subject  by  pointing  out  on  the  one 


INTRODUCTION.  XV 

hand  the  kind  of  information  already  acquired,  and  on  the 
other  that  which  is  still  desirable  or  desiderated. 

Designed  originally  to  form  a  single  volume  of  the  In- 
ternational Scientific  Series,  I  have  found  it  impossible, 
after  fruitless  efforts  at  condensation,  to  compress  what 
must  be  said  in  such  a  preliminary  treatise  within  the  com- 
pass of  one  volume  of  300  or  400  pages.  With  the  con- 
currence, therefore,  on  the  one  hand  of  the  publishers,  and 
on  the  other  of  the  committee  of  the  International  Scientific 
Series  of  books,  instead  of  issuing  an  incomplete  work  by 
the  omission  of  what  I  regard  as  its  most  important  half — 
that  which  treats  of  mental  disease — I  have  been  constrained 
to  cast  the  whole  materials  in  two  volumes,  treating  re- 
spectively of  the  varied  phases  or  phenomena  on  the  one 
hand  of  healthy,  and  on  the  other  of  diseased,  mind. 

Anxious  as  far  as  possible,  in  a  work  intended  for 
popular  use,  to  divest  the  subject  of  mind  in  animals  of 
all  unnecessary,  repulsive,  or  confusing  technicalities,  I  have 
purposely  used  the  term  mind  itself,  and  all  terms  relating 
to  its  constituents  or  operations,  in  their  ordinary,  popular, 
or  comprehensive  sense.  All  men  of  experience  and  culture 
feel,  rather  than  know,  what  these  terms  express  or  imply, 
though  it  has  been  abundantly  shown,  by  the  frequent  un- 
successful attempts  that  have  been  made,  how  impossible  it  is 
to  define  them  satisfactorily.  Indeed,  no  two  authors  agree 
as  to  the  signification  that  should  be  attached  to  such  terms 
as  'will,'  'feeling/  'thought,'  'consciousness,'  'intention/ 
and  so  forth.  So  far  as  I  can  judge,  after  a  special  study  of 
several  of  the  fashionable  modern  systems  of  psychology — 
of  mental  or  moral  philosophy — such  as  those  of  Herbert 
Spencer  and  Professor  Bain,  I  do  not  think  anything  would 
be  gained  by  attempting,  in  such  a  work  as  the  present,  the 
strict  definition  of  these  or  similar  terms,  or  their  restricted 
use,  solely  in  a  metaphysical,  psychological,  or  other  purely 
scientific  or  technical  sense.  I  do  not,  therefore,  here  at- 
tempt psychological  definition  or  classification,  preferring  to 
permit  each  reader  to  define  and  classify  according  to  his  own 
favourite  system  of  nomenclature  and  arrangement. 

I  do  not  venture  to  generalise  beyond  a  certain  safe  limit ; 


xvi  INTRODUCTION. 

the  time  having  not  yet  come  for  full  generalisation  on  such  a 
subject  as  mind  in  the  lower,  and  especially  in  the  lowest, 
animals.  We  want  a  much  greater  number  of  exact  and 
indisputable  facts,  which  must  then  be  duly  arranged  and 
indexed ;  and  then,  and  not  till  then,  shall  we  be  in  a  posi- 
tion to  draw  legitimate  inferences  of  an  equally  compre- 
hensive and  accurate  kind. 

I  profess  to  deal  only  with  the  facts  of  observation,  and 
with  the  scientific  or  logical  inferences  that  may  be  based 
upon,  or  drawn  from,  such  facts.  I  have  omitted,  therefore, 
every  topic,  however  interesting  in  itself,  that  does  not 
admit  of  scientific  demonstration  or  legitimate  argument  or 
inference — in  other  words,  all  that  belongs  to  the  region  of 
pure  speculation.  Thus  I  feel  myself  compelled  to  omit  a 
series  of  chapters  on  the  soul  and  its  immortality  in  the 
lower  animals,  concerning  which  much  has  been  written  by 
some  of  the  most  celebrated  divines  and  philosophers  of 
their  day,  the  affirmative  opinions  expressed  by  them 
being  such  as  even  nowadays  would  probably  be  re- 
garded as  heterodox.  But  neither  in  man  nor  in  other 
animals  does  soul  admit  of  scientific  demonstration,  defini- 
tion, or  discussion  at  all.  Only  lately  the  question  has  been 
seriously  started,  *  Have  savages  souls  ? '  and  so  long  as 
this  is  a  matter  of  doubt  I  may  be  excused  from  discussing 
the  possession  or  non-possession  of  soul  by  the  so-called  in- 
ferior creatures.  I  prefer  leaving  the  subject  of  its  presence 
or  absence — its  immortality  or  annihilation — in  the  lower 
animals  to  those  divines  or  philosophers  so  called  who 
consider  themselves  qualified  to  deal  with  abstruse  specula- 
tive questions  that  belong  to  the  debatable  ground  equally 
of  theology  and  metaphysics. 

There  are  certain  other  topics — all  interesting  in  them- 
selves— which  I  have  also  altogether  omitted,  or  have  simply 
alluded  to,  as  being  more  suitable  for  exposition  in  purely 
medical,  scientific,  or  philosophical  works  or  journals. 

To  save  repetitions  in  the  body  of  the  work,  and  to  afford 
the  means  of  identification  by  foreign  as  well  as  by  British 
naturalists,  I  have  deemed  it  desirable  to  append  a  list  of 
the  scientific  as  well  as  the  common  names  of  the  various 
animals  referred  to  throughout  the  volume. 


INTRODUCTION.  xvii 

In  submitting  to  the  reader  in  the  following  pages  the 
conclusions  deducible  or  deduced  from  my  own  researches, 
I  do  not  forget  the  adage  *  Quot  homines,  tot  sententise.' 
I  do  not  expect  those  who  approach  the  subject  from 
very  different  points  of  view  to  accept  either  my  facts  or 
inferences ;  or,  assuming  that  the  facts  are  accepted,  I  can- 
not hope  that  other  students  will  draw  the  same  conclu- 
sions or  form  the  same  opinions.  I  hare  no  wish  to  thrust 
my  own  views  dogmatically  on  any  reader.  Rather  do  I 
offer  him  the  means  of  forming  an  opinion  of  his  own — by 
giving  him,  for  instance,  in  the  Bibliography  the  data  on 
which  I  have  partly  basecl  my  own  conclusions . 

I  plead  not  for  an  immediate  or  even  an  ultimate  ac- 
ceptance of  my  opinions,  but  simply  for  a  dispassionate 
study  of  the  subject  of  the  mental  endowments  of  the  lower 
animals,  convinced  that  such  a  study  can  only  eventuate  in 
benefit  equally  to  the  student  and  to  the  objects  of  study — 
these  lower  animals  themselves — whether  or  not  it  be 
conceded  that  in  them  mind  is  the  same  in  kind  as  in  man. 
I  hope,  whether  the  reader  agree  or  disagree  with  me  as 
to  the  nature  and  extent  of  animal  mind,  at  least  to  es- 
tablish certain  new  claims  on  the  part  of  the  lower  animals 
upon  man's  consideration  and  kindness. 

At  all  events  I  can  honestly  say  of  my  work — 

'Tis  not  the  hasty  product  of  a  day ; 

and  I  must  leave  it  to  the  reader  to  determine  whether  it 
can  be  equally  truthfully  added — 

But  the  well-ripened  fruit  of  wise  delay. 


COMPARATIVE  PSYCHOLOGY. 

GENERAL    CONSIDERATIONS,    INCLUDING 
THE    METHODS    OF    ENQUIRY. 


V.HAPTEE  I. 

RESULTS   OF   HUMAN   IGNORANCE,   ERROR,    AND    PREJUDICE. 

IT  may,  and  probably  will,  appear  to  many — perhaps  the 
majority — of  my  readers  a  work  of  supererogation  to  insist 
that  he  who  ventures  upon  the  study  of  mind  in  the  lower 
animals  should  do  so  free  from  bias  or  prejudice,  having  his 
own  mind  in  a  state  of  preparedness  for  the  observation  of 
facts  and  the  deduction  of  logical  inferences  from  facts  ;  or 
to  stipulate  that  the  student  should  first  possess  a  proper 
knowledge  of  the  human  mind  not  only  as  it  is  developed 
amidst  the  highest  civilisation,  but  in  its  genesis,  growth,  de- 
generacy, and  decay  in  the  child,  the  savage,  the  idiot,  and 
the  lunatic.  My  own  experiences,  however,  in  conversation 
and  correspondence,  as  well  as  a  varied  and  extensive  reading, 
leave  me  in  no  doubt  as  to  the  kind  and  amount  of  ignorance, 
error,  and  prejudice  regarding  the  mental  endowments  of 
animals  that  are  everywhere  prevalent,  not  only  among  the 
general  public — the  indoctum  vulgus — but  among  our  repre- 
sentative men  of  the  very  highest  culture — ignorance,  error, 
and  prejudice  that  are  illustrated  in  speeches  or  writings 
from  the  very  highest  public  platforms,  from  the  most  in- 
fluential official  positions. 

It  is  desirable  to  explain  what  I  mean  by  specifying  some 
of  the  errors  which  man  has  committed,  and  is  constantly 
committing,  in  regard  to  the  mental  aptitudes  of  other 
animals,  and  by  considering  the  obvious  or  probable  sources 
of  these  errors. 

1.  The  artificial  differentiation  of  animal  from  human  in- 
telligence ;  the  ascription  of  instinct  as  an  exclusive  posses- 


4  MAN'S  ERRORS. 

sion  to  the  one  and  of  reason  to  the  other ;  the  confusion 
between  instinct  and  reason ;  the  attribution  to  instinct  in 
other  animals  of  what  would  be  assigned  to  reason  in  man. 

2.  The  belief  that  animals  are  mere '  animated  machines ' 
(Descartes),  and  that  animal  reason  is  '  mechanical '  in  its 
nature  or  action  (Buffon). 

3.  The  confounding  of  mere  reflex  or  automatic  action 
with  expressions  of  pain — for  instance,  in  the  decapitated 
frog. 

4.  The  supposition,  on  the  other  hand,  that  animals  are 
insensible  to,  or  insusceptible  of,  ordinary  physical  pain — for 
instance,  the  rhinoceros  and  beetle. 

5.  Baron  Cuvier's  misstatements  as  to  the  mental  en- 
dowments of,  or  rather  their  absence  in,  fishes,  while  alto- 
gether his  conceptions  on  the  subject  of  mind  in  the  lower 
animals  were  both  limited  and  incorrect. 

6.  The  inference  of   Principal   Caird   of  Glasgow — the 
common  outcome  of  the  theological  intellect — that  the  dog, 
for  instance,  wants  the  '  spirit '  of  man,  and  cannot  therefore 
'  know  the  things  of  man ' — whatever  such  an  expression 
may  mean.    He  speaks  of  the  '  irrational  animal  that  cannot 
appreciate  man's  words  or  acts,  that  is   inapprehensive  of 
man's  thought  and  feeling,'  while  he  admits  a  certain  '  rude 
intelligence '  of  its  master's  will. 

7.  Kirby  talking  of  the  '  half-reasoning '  beaver  and  the 
'irrational'  animal. 

8.  The  misconceptions,  even  in  physiologists,  as .  to  the 
brain-functions  in  man  (Professor  Rutherford). 

9.  The  conviction  that  the  brain  is  the  sole  organ  of  mind 
in  man. 

10.  The  association  of  intelligence,  as  to  its    kind   or 
degree,  with  the  mere  size  either  of  brain  or  body. 

11.  The  undeserved  bad  reputations  of  certain  animals, 
and  the  supposed  good  ones  of  certain  others  ;  that  is  to  say, 
misconceptions  concerning  their  real  character — their  virtues 
on  the  one  hand  and  their  vices  on  the  other — embodied,  for 
instance,  in  popular  emblems,  legends,  proverbs,  fables,  or 
fiction. 

12.  The  inference  of  the  late  Sir  Benjamin  Brodie  that 


MAN'S   ERRORS.  5 

animals  live  only  in  the  present,  which  implies  that  they 
have  no  foresight. 

13.  Sydney  Smith's  opinion  that  mind  in  animals  exists 
only  for  the  preservation  of  the  body,  or  that  all  their  actions 
bear  either  on  self-preservation  or  reproduction. 

14.  The  ascription  of  all  kinds  of  mental  excitement  or 
forms  of  insanity  in  animals  to  rabies — in  other  words,  the 
non-discrimination  of  the  nature  of  the  different  sorts  of 
animal  madness. 

15.  The  hue  and  cry  after  animals  reputedly  '  mad,'  and 
their  summary  destruction  when  caught. 

16.  Belief  in  the  incurability  and  in  the  dangerousness 
to  man  of  all  forms  of  animal  l  madness.' 

17.  The  idea  that  rabies  occurs  only  in  the  so-called  dog- 
days  of  summer,  or  during  hot  weather. 

18.  The  notion  that  muzzling  dogs  is  a  guarantee  against 
the  propagation  of  rabies. 

19.  The  opinion  that  all  dog-bites  must  or  may  produce 
hydrophobia  in  man,  proceeding  as  they  presumably  do  from 
rabid  animals. 

20.  Forcing  animals  to  duties  that  are  not  understood  by 
them,  that  are  unpalatable,  or  that  are  unsuited  to  their 
powers,  bodily  or  mental. 

21.  Regarding   affection  for  man  as  a  matter    of  self- 
interest  only. 

22.  Comte  talking  of  the  incapacity  for  instruction   in 
apes. 

23.  Superstitions  regarding,  for  instance,  the  were-wolf, 
man-tiger,  man-hysena,  griffins,  dragons,  phoenix,  salamander, 
chimsera,  fauns,    satyrs,   naiads,  dryads,    and   hamadryads, 
witchcraft,  and  the  transmigration  of  souls. 

24.  Inaccuracies  in  observation  and  description  by  authors 
of  all  classes,  especially  poets,  novelists,  and  theologians,  but 
even  by  mental  philosophers  and  naturalists  of  the  highest 
eminence. 

25.  The  comparative  but  fictitious  exaltation  of  man  by 
the  degradation  or  depreciation  of  other  animals;  the  sup- 
posed necessary  inferiority  of  the  latter  or — what  comes  to 
the  same  thing — the  alleged  superiority  or  supremacy  of  man. 


6  MAN'S  ERROKS. 

26.  The  disavowal  or  non-admission  of  man's  Unship  to, 
or  fellowship  with,  other  animals ;  obliviousness  of  the  fact 
that  they  are  fellow-creatures  or  fellow-mortals,  with  fellow- 
feelings. 

27.  The  perplexing  terminology  of  mental  philosophy. 
Such  errors  as  the  foregoing  are  the  natural  fruit  of  the 

following  faults  and  failings  of  human  nature,  which  have 
ever  constituted,  and  continue  to  constitute,  formidable 
obstacles  to  the  proper  study  of  animal  reason : — 

1.  Ignorance,  on  the  one  hand,  of  the  natural  history  and 
habits  of  the  lower  animals,  and  on  the  other  of  the  natural 
history  of  the  human  mind  ;  or,  in  other  words,  of  biology, 
zoology,  physiology  and  psychology  (human  and  comparative), 
ajid  logic. 

2.  Thoughtlessness ;  want  of  due  consideration  or  reflec- 
tion. 

3.  Intolerance,  pride,  arrogance,  self-complacency  or  vanity, 
amour-propre,  exclusiveness  and  selfishness,  jealousy. 

4.  Prejudice,  superstition,  bigotry  or  fanaticism,  especi- 
ally those  forms  which  are  theological  and  metaphysical. 

5.  Incompetence  to  sift  evidence,  to  observe  facts,  to  reason 
logically,  and  the  confusion  of  ideas  therefrom  resulting. 

6.  The  substitution  of  speculation  for  the  observation  of 
fact  and  for  logical  inference.     The  confusion  of  the  un- 
certain or  unascertained  with   the   certain  or  ascertained; 
of  fact  with  fiction,  inference,  or  opinion. 

7.  Imperviousness  to  conviction,  and  the  prevalence  and 
preference  of  dogmatism,  theological  or  other. 

8.  Want  of  sympathy  with,  and  appreciation  of,  animal 
character,  feeling,  and  suffering. 

9.  The  dread  of  the  consequences  of  scientific  enquiry  and 
conclusions,  in  reference  especially  to  current  religious  creeds 
or  faiths ;  fears  for  the  stability  or  reality  of  man's  boasted 
pre-eminence,  for  the  vaunted  dignity  of  human  nature. 

10.  The  tendency  to  harsh  or  hasty  judgments  on  the 
character  of  subject  creatures. 

11.  The  liability  to  morbid  credulity  or  credulousness. 

In  so  far,  then,  as  error,  and  the  sources  or  causes  of 
error,  in  or  concerning  man's  conceptions  of  the  nature  and 


METHOD   OF  STUDY.  7 

extent  of  the  mental  operations  of  the  lower  animals  are 
superabundant,  it  is  a  self-evident  corollary  that  the  student 
who  professes  or  proposes  to  devote  himself  to  investigations 
in  comparative  psychology  should  bring  to  his  task  at  least 
the  following  qualifications  : — 

1.  He  may  have  to  unlearn  much  that  he  has  already 
learned — for  instance,  as  regards  the  supposed  necessary  con- 
nection of  mind  with  brain  or  nervous  system — and  unlearning 
is  always  a  difficult  matter.     *  Learn  of  me,'  said  Luther, 
'  how  hard  it  is  to  unlearn  the  errors  which  the  whole  world 
confirms  by  its  example,  and  which  by  long  use  have  become 
to  us  as  a  second  nature.' 

2.  He  must  be  prepared  to  change,  or  at  least  enlarge, 
his  conceptions  of  the  nature  and  range  of  mind. 

3.  He  should  re-study  carefully  certain  phenomena  of  the 
human   mind,  more  especially  the    inter-relations   of   con- 
sciousness  and  unconsciousness,  and  the   whole  subject   of 
reflex  or  automatic  cerebro-spinal  action. 

4.  He  should  further  consider  in  detail  the  mental  phe- 
nomena of  acephalous  animals  or  infants  ;  the  attributes  of 
the  spinal  cord  and  of  the  different  classes  of  nerves  when 
disconnected  from  or  unassociated  with  brain. 

5.  His  study  of  the  human  mind  must  not  be  confined  to 
its  highest  manifestations  or  as  it  has  been  developed  by 
generations   of    high    culture   in   the    most    intelligent    of 
civilised  peoples,  but  it  must  embrace  its  lowest  manifesta- 
tions— its   stages  of  non-development,  non-cultivation,  de- 
generation,  retrogression ;    in    all    conditions    of    disease, 
moreover,  as  well  as  in  health.     Hence  his  field  of  enquiry 
must  include  man  in  all  the  different  stages  of  the  social 
scale,  the  genesis  and  progress  or  development  of  mind  in 
the  infant,  civilised  and  savage,  with  the  morbid  psychical 
phenomena  of  the  idiot  and  lunatic. 

6.  He  should  enquire  further  whether  the  bases  of  mind 
are  not  to  be  found  in  the  vegetable  kingdom — in  the  form,  for 
instance,  of  purposive  action; l  what  are  the  bases  of  mind  in 
plants  and   the   lower   animals;  what  is  consciousness,  and 

1  I  have  inaugurated  enquiry  in  this  direction  in  a  paper  mentioned  in 
the  Bibliography. 


8  METHOD  OF  STUDY. 

whether  it  is  an  indispensable  element  in  mind ;  and,  in  short, 
what  is  the  very  essence  of  mind  itself. 

7.  He  should  be  free,  or  should  free  himself,  from  all 
bias,  prejudging,  preconception  or  misconception,  foregone 
conclusion,  mental  preoccupation  or  prepossession. 

8.  He  should  be  quite  open  to  conviction  by  the  evidence 
furnished  by  the  observation  of  facts,  ready  to  confess  and 
renounce  his  own  mistakes  either  of  observation  or  inference. 

9.  There  must  be  perfect  honesty  of  purpose  and  single- 
ness of  aim,  that  purpose  or  aim  being  simply  the  discovery 
of  truth. 

10.  But  he  must  be  prepared  for  the  penalties   that 
so  frequently  attach  themselves  to  the  discoverers  or  pro- 
pounders  of  new  or  unpalatable  truths;  he  must  bear  in 
mind  that  new  truths  are  usually  productive  of  uneasiness, 
suspicion,  or  fear  in  conservative  minds,  more    especially 
when  these  truths  come  into  conflict,  as  they  so  frequently 
do,  with  long-cherished  associations  or  beliefs. 

11.  He  must,  however,  be  regardless  of  the  consequences  of 
his  discovery  or  exposition  of  truth,  of  his  logical  generalisa- 
tions  from  facts,   or  of  his  honest  renunciation  of  error; 
fearless  of  the  criticism,  opposition,  vilification — it  may  be 
even  nowadays,  and  in  one  sense  or  another,  persecution — 
to  which  his  outspokenness  may  subject  him. 

12.  He   should  have  a  natural   capacity  for,  with   due 
training  and  experience  in,  careful  observation  and  accurate 
description. 

13.  It  is  at  least  desirable  that  he  should  be  gifted  with 
fertility  in  experiment,  with  a  ready  suggestiveness  as  to  the 
best  means  of  testing  the  correctness  of  his  observations  or 
conclusions. 

14.  The  power  of  patient  application  to  study,  and  to  the 
study  of  many  collateral  branches  of  a  main    subject,  is 
equally  important. 

15.  A  further  mental  endowment  that  may  be  considered 
indispensable  is  sympathy  both  with  his  subject — compara- 
tive psychology — and  with  the   objects  of  his  study — the 
lower  animals  themselves. 

16.  He  should  be  able  to  discriminate  between  what  man 


METHOD  OF  STUDY.  9 

can  and  cannot  do  in  the  solution  of  psychological  problems  ; 
what  the  student  may,  or  should  not,  attempt. 

17.  There  should  be  no  confusion  with  other — probably 
irrelevant — questions  or  subjects.     What  the  student  has  to 
determine  for  himself  is  simply  this  :  whether  other  animals 
than  man,  and  what  animals,  exhibit  such  phenomena  as 
in  him  are  ascribed  to,  or  inseparably  associated  with,  our 
ideas  of  mind. 

18.  His  judgment  should  be  cool  and  dispaiseionate,  his 
decisions  impartial ;  the  mischievous  element  temper  should 
be  eliminated  from  all  possible  controversy  in  which  he  may 
find  himself  involved ;  and,  as  a  rule,  all  controversy  itself  is 
to  be  avoided,  as  tending  to  the  introduction  of  irrelevant 
and  objectionable  personalities. 

19.  In  short,  his  investigation  should  be  conducted  on  a 
strictly  scientific  method,  and  in  the  true  scientific  spirit. 

Assuming,  however,  the  perfect  competency  of  the  student 
to  grapple  with  his  task,  there  are  certain  inherent  difficulties 
in  the  subject  itself.  For  instance,  it  is  not  at  all  so  easy 
as  may  a  priori  appear,  in  drawing  comparisons  between 
the  mental  phenomena  of  man  and  other  animals,  to  make 
the  necessary  allowance  for  differences  in  structure  and  habits, 
with  which  differences  in  mind  and  its  manifestations  are 
correlated. 

Again,  we  are  frequently  told  of  man's  incapacity  for 
estimating  either  the  quality  or  range,  nature  or  comprehen- 
siveness, of  animal  reason.  But  this  is  too  obviously  a  con- 
clusion based  on  the  assumption  that  animal  reason  differs 
essentially  from  man's.  Much  has  been  urged  as  to  the 
fallacy  of  reasoning  by  or  from  analogy ;  of  judging  of 
mind  in  other  animals  from  the  character  of  that  of  man. 
Fortunately,  or  unfortunately,  it  is  only  in  this  way,  by  com- 
parison with  his  own  ideas,  feelings,  actions,  that  man  can 
study  the  mental  or  moral  endowments  of  other  animals  at 
all ;  and  it  appears  (to  me  at  least)  that  this  method  of  study, 
this  mode  of  forming  a  judgment — such  data  for  instituting 
a  comparison — lead  us  to  perfectly  trustworthy  results,  as- 
suming always  that  the  student  possesses  the  qualifications 
for  such  an  enquiry  that  have  been  already  specified. 


10  METHOD   OF  STUDY. 

In  an  investigation  in  which  comparison  is  constantly 
being  made  between  the  human  and  animal  mind,  it  is  all- 
important  that  man's  standard,  ideal,  or  type  of  the  human 
mind  should  not  be  too  high.  It  is  much  safer  and  sounder 
to  form  his  ideal  or  average  from  the  mental  condition  or 
phenomena  of  the  lowest  races  and  most  degraded  classes 
of  man,  than  from  those  of  the  highly  cultured  Englishman 
or  American,  German  or  Frenchman, 

Much  Has  been  made,  by  those  who  deny  that  animals 
possess  mind  at  all,  of  the  ever-present  danger  of  confounding 
resemblance  with  identity ;  and  I  do  not  desire  to  conceal  or 
depreciate  the  magnitude  or  frequency  of  occurrence  of 
such  pitfalls  for  the  unwary.  But  the  fact  that  the  ex- 
istence of  such  difficulties  or  dangers  is  admitted  by  all 
parties— those  who  affirm,  as  well  as  those  who  deny,  the 
possession  by  the  lower  animals  of  mind  of  the  same  nature 
as  that  of  man — merely  indicates  the  desirability  of  the 
possession  by  the  student  of  comparative  psychology  of  the 
special  qualifications  before  enumerated. 

No  doubt  we  can  only  make  guesses  or  conjectures  at  the 
truth  ;  we  can  attain  but  probabilities  as  to  the  presence  or 
absence  in  the  lower  animals,  under  certain  circumstances, 
of  such  faculties  as  consciousness.  The  difficulties  of  any- 
thing approaching  proof  or  demonstration  are  sometimes 
insuperable;  but  these  difficulties  are  equally  great  in 
regard  to  the  analysis  of  the  mental  condition  of  countless" 
thousands  of  human  beings,  in  whose  case  at  least  it  can- 
not be  affirmed  that  analogical  study  is  not  admissible  or 
appropriate. 

The  practice  of  mental  analysis  is  indispensable  to  the 
student,  who  has  only  patiently  to  reflect  upon  the  mental 
qualities  involved,  for  instance,  in  some  of  the  commonest 
tricks  or  feats  of  performing  or  other  animals,  to  become 
convinced  of  the  number,  nature,  and  variety  of  their  psychi- 
cal aptitudes  or  gifts. 


CHAPTEE  IT. 

FAULTS    AND    FANCIES    OF    TEEMINOLOGT. 

MAN  has  probably  from  time  immemorial  been  in  the  habit 
of  using  towards  his  brother  man  abusive  or  opprobrious 
epithets  based  on  the  supposed  evil  qualities  and  mental 
inferiority  or  difference  of  the  lower  animals.  These  terms 
of  contempt  or  abuse — of  invidious  comparison — embody  and 
illustrate  many  current  popular  errors  and  prejudices  re- 
garding the  mental  endowments  of  animals,  or  the  absence 
of  such  endowments.  They  libel  animal  intelligence  and 
virtues,  while  they  do  no  credit  to  those  of  man.  Ignorant, 
selfish,  proud,  prejudiced  man  takes  very  much  in  vain  the 
names  of  many  estimable  animals  and  animal  virtues  in 
such  designations  as  the  following : — 

1.  Brute  ;  *  brutal '  or  *  brutish,'  '  brutality.'     In  so  far 
as  these  words  have  become  synonyms  for  want  of  feeling 
or  affection,  for  savageness,  for  cruelty  and  the  love  thereof 
for  its  own  sake  ;  or  for  animals  that  are  stupid,  coarse,  or 
unrefined,  irrational,  impulsive,  swayed  by  the  lower  pro- 
pensities, mentally  degraded,  devoid  of  moral  sense,  con- 
science, the  religious  sentiment,  or  even  of  reason  (according 
to  the  dictionaries) — such    terms    are    much   more    appro- 
priate to  man  himself  than  to  the  lower  animals  ;  while,  in 
so  far  as  they  are  truly  applicable  to  the  latter,  the  pro- 
pensities which  man  calls  distinctively,  but  most  erroneously, 
unjustly,    and    ungenerously,    'brutal'  have   been,  in  the 
majority  of  instances  at  least,  produced  by  man's  own  bad 
example  or  training,  or  both — in   short,  by  his   own    evil 
influence  upon  them,  designed  or  unintentional. 

2.  Bestial,  in    so  far  as   it  is  used    synonymously  with 


12  FAULTS  OF  TERMINOLOGY. 

«  brutal '  in  its  bad  sense.  In  the  sense  in  which  it  is  simply 
equivalent  to  '  animal '  its  use  is  quite  legitimate,  as  when 
psycho-pathologists  talk  of  'bestial'  insanity  in  man.  A 
man  who  is  found  in  the  gutter  hopelessly  drunk  is  said 
to  have  '  made  a  least  of  himself ; '  and  the  coarse,  rude, 
vulgar  man  is  frequently  said  to  '  behave  like  a  beast.'  Un- 
fortunately there  is  a  converse.  Intoxication  is  one  of  the 
vices  common  to  other  animals  with  man — one  of  those, 
moreover,  that  they  adopt  by  imitation  from  man.  When, 
therefore,  an  unfortunate  monkey,  dog,  or  horse,  ant  or 
medusa,  is  inebriated,  if  the  term  *  behaving  like  a  beast ' — as 
one  of  opprobrium — is  applicable  at  all,  it  is  so  to  the  man 
who  is  the  cause,  direct  or  indirect,  of  the  animal's  intoxi- 
cation. Illustrations  will  be  found  in  the  chapter  on  alcoholic 
and  other  forms  of '  intoxication '  in  animals. 

3.  Animal,  in  so  far  as  it  is  used  distinctively  —  im- 
plying a  distinction,  structural  or  psychical — between  man 
and  other  animals;  for  man  himself  is  but  an  '  animal,'  and 
frequently  very  far  from  being  either  morally  or  intellectually 
the  highest.     The  word  '  animal '  is  both  faulty  and  objec- 
tionable when  applied — as  it  so  commonly  is  by  phrenolo- 
gists— to    feelings    or    faculties,    organs,    constitution,    or 
nature  in  man  in  contrast  with  those  other  mental  qualities 
which  are  described  as  moral  and  intellectual.     Thus  it  is 
used  as  synonymous   with    sensual,  sexual,  unintellectual, 
when  we  speak  of  an  «  animalised'  man,  or  of  a  man  as  '  a 
mere    animal,'    or  apply  the    term   '  animality '    to  man's 
lower  propensities  in  contradistinction  to  his   'humanity,' 
his  moral  and  intellectual  nature ;  but  in  all  the  senses  in 
which  it  is  so  variously  used  it  is  at  least  quite  as  applicable 
to  man  as  to  other  animals. 

4.  It  is  both  an  insult  to  the  animals  in  question  and 
an  error  in  comparison  to  speak  of  conjugal  or  domestic 
jars  as  significant  of  a  '  cat  and  dog  life ; '  the  fact  being 
that  cats  and  dogs  frequently  live — as  do  also  many  other 
animals,  even  of  different  genera  and  species — in  the  ut- 
most harmony.     If  this  harmony  be  not  the  result  of  natural 
conditions— if  the  animals  in  question  do  not  contract  natural 
companionship    and    interchange   a  natural    affection   and 


FAULTS   OF  TERMINOLOGY.  13 

regard — they  can  at  least  be  trained  into  so  desirable  a  con- 
dition of  affairs. 

5.  It  is  even  a  greater  indignity  to  offer  to  the  noblest 
of  all  the  lower  animals  to  describe  a  contemptible  person 
as  '  a  dog,'  *  a  dirty  dog,'  '  an  ugly  dog/  or  *  a  sly  dog ; '  to 
refer  to  a  human  dandy  as  '  a  puppy,'  or  to  a  mean,  shabby 
human  scoundrel  as  '  a  hound ; '  though  it  may  be  legitimate 
enough  to  characterise  a  chattel  as  i  dog  chea.p.' 

6.  The  word  cannibalism  is  derived  from  canis  (a  dog),  or 
at  least  is  said  by  the  dictionaries  to  be  so.   But  the  practice 
of  destroying  each  other  or  their  young,  for  the  purpose  of 
eating  their  victims  or  not,  is  quite  as  common  in  man  as 
in  any  of  the  lower  animals  ;  and  there  is  no  good  ground 
why  the  dog's  generic  name  should  be  selected  in  the  nomen- 
clature of  so  horrible  a  procedure  or  practice. 

7.  '  A  dog  in  the  manger '  spirit  is  said  to  be  possessed 
by  a  man  who  neither  will  nor  can  use  a  thing  himself,  nor 
allow  the  use  or  enjoyment  of  it  to  those  who  have  both  the 
will  and  the  ability  to  employ  it  to  good  purpose ;  but  in 
point  of  fact  a  dog  in  his  manger  frequently  gives  his  pro- 
tection to,  and  shares  even  his   food  with,  companions  of 
very  different  genera  and  species. 

8.  '  G-ive  a  dog  a  bad  name,  and  you  may  as  well  hang 
him,'    is   literally   applicable  to  unfortunate    animals  sus- 
pected of  rabies.     Whatever  may  be  the  case  with  men,  to 
whom  the  phrase  is  applied  figuratively,  the  dog  to  which 
this  particular  kind  of  bad  name  is  given  is  usually  wholly 
undeserving   of    it,   and   if    properly   treated   would  prove 
itself  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  to  be  a  harmless,  respectable 
animal. 

9.  We  apply  the  words  *  an  old  cat,'   or  '  spiteful  as  a 
cat,'  to  backbiting  scandal  and  all  manner  of  spitefulness ; 
and  no  doubt  the    cat  is  occasionally  spiteful,  or  may  be 
supposed  to  be  so ;  but  it  is  not  distinctively  so,  and  it  is 
far  less  so  than  many  men,   and  especially  women,  while 
the  poor  cat  has  many  admirable  qualities  for  the  posses- 
sion of  which  it  gets  no  credit. 

10.  We  say  of  a  consequential,  pompous,  empty-headed 
coxcomb  that  he  is  *  proud  or  vain  as  a  peacock ; '  but  the 


14  FAULTS  OF  TERMINOLOGY. 

pride  or  vanity  is  much  more  certain  in  the  case  of  the  man 
than  in  that  of  the  beautiful  bird. 

11.  We  call  a  man  '  a  bear 'in  allusion  to  his  rough- 
ness or  gruffness— his  tone,  temper,  or  manner— forgetting 
that  the  bear  is  both  an  affectionate  and  intelligent  mother. 

12.  One  schoolboy  calls  another  who  is,  or  is  supposed 
to  be,  cowardly  « a  hen  ; '  but  the  hen — in  its  condition  of 
maternity  at  least,  in  protection  of  its  brood — is  capable  of 
the  exhibition  of  wonderful  bravery. 

13.  Alluding  to  the   alleged  hopeless  stupidity  of  an- 
other, a  boy  stigmatises  his  companion  as  '  an  ass '  or  '  a 
goose.'    But  here  again  the  poor  animals  are  grossly  ma- 
ligned ;  for  both  of  them,  under  favourable  circumstances, 
sometimes  exhibit  great  intelligence. 

14.  The  ass,  too,  is  regarded  as  the  emblem  of  obsti- 
nacy  and  laziness  ;    but  in  its  natural  or  wild   state,   or 
under    proper  treatment  by  man,  it   is   neither  an  obsti- 
nate nor  a  lazy  animal.    Its  vices,  when  it  possesses  them,  it 
owes  usually  to  man ;  so  that  in  this  as  in  so  many  other 
similar  cases  the  misjudged  animals  have  had  developed  in 
them,  by  man's  inhumanity,  vices  that  are  really  more  pro- 
perly human. 

15.  A  timid   child   is   described  as  *  a  sheep ; '  and  no 
doubt  the  domesticated  sheep  is  an  eminently  timid  animal ; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  males  of  certain  races,  breeds, 
or  species  of  wild  sheep  are  both  courageous  and  intelligent. 

It  were  easy  to  multiply  such  instances  of  man's  injus- 
tice and  ignorance  ;  but  it  is  unnecessary  to  illustrate  this 
subject  further  here,  seeing  especially  that  it  is  again  treated 
of  in  the  chapter  on  animal  reputation. 

Some  of  man's  phrases  that  appear  on  the  surface  un- 
complimentary to  other  animals,  because  they  are  obviously 
intended  to  be  so  by  those  who  employ  them,  are  really  in 
a  sense  complimentary.  For  instance,  when  one  man  is 
spoken  of  as  *  dogging  the  steps'  of  another,  an  unintended 
tribute  is  really  paid  to  the  fidelity  in  companionship,  to 
the  disinterestedness  in  servitude,  of  the  dog.  The  dogging 
of  footsteps  by  fellow-man  is  applied  to  close  following  for  a 
sinister  object,  whereas  in  the  dog's  faithful  following  of  his 


FAULTS   OF  TERMINOLOGY.  15 

master  no  sinister  object  can  possibly,  as   a  rule,  be  sus- 
pected. 

Man  commits  equal  error  in  the  epithets  applied  to 
his  brother  man  which  are,  or  are  supposed  to  be,  com- 
plimentary to  animal  virtues.  For  instance — 

1.  When  we  say  '  brave  as  a  lion '  we  commit  a  grave 
error ;  for  the  lion,  so  far  from  being  a  brave,  is  naturally  a 
cowardly  animal. 

2.  The  majesty  of  the    eagle  is  also  very  much— so  far 
as  the  term  relates  at  least  to  mental  qualities — a  fiction  of 
the  poet  and  the  public. 

Equal  error,  then,  is  committed  by  man  in  regarding 
animals  as  emblems  or  embodiments  of  human  virtues  or 
vices,  a  subject  that  is  further  discussed  in  another  chapter 
(on  animal  reputation). 

Other  illustrations  of  an  incorrect  and  objectionable  phra- 
seology are  to  be  found  in  such  terms  as — 

1.  Dumb,  or  mute,  as  applied  to  the  lower  animals,  im- 
plying inability,  by  a  supposed  want  of  all  language,  to  make 
their  wants  or  feelings  known  to  man  or  to  each  other.     This 
is  one   of  those  numerous    mistakes  attributable  to  man's 
ignorance,  the  fact  being  that  animal  language  is  quite  as 
eloquent  and  efficient  in  the  eyes  of  those  who  have  studied, 
and  consequently  understand,  it  as  can  be  the  mere  spoken  or 
written  language  of  vain  man. 

2.  Lower,  as  applied  to  other  animals  tha.n    man.     No 
doubt,  on  the  whole  or  as  a  group,  other  animals  are  zoolo- 
gically, and  psychically,  as  well  as  structurally,  lower  than 
man.    But  it  is  not  true  that  all  animals  are  necessarily  lower 
psychically  than  all  men;  for  the  converse  is  true,  that  many 
individual   animals — dogs,   horses,   elephants,    parrots — are 
both  morally  and  intellectually  higher  than  thousands  of  men 
even  in  the  very  centres  of  Western  and  modern  civilisation. 

3.  Raving,    as    applied    to    the    delirium    or    mania    of 
animals  incapable  of  speech.      There  are,  however,  excep- 
tional cases,  in  which  the  use  of  such  a  term  is  not  only  not 
so  absurd  as  may  at  first  sight  appear,  but  is  quite  legitimate — 
for  instance,  in  the  case  of  parrots  able  to  speak,  sometimes 
in  more  than  one  human  language. 

3 


16  FAULTS   OF  TERMINOLOGY. 

4.  Hydrophobia  is  an  instance  both,  of  the  unnecessary 
multiplication  of  technical  terms  and  of  their  ambiguity.     It 
is  most  unnecessarily  and  mischievously  applied  to  man  in 
contradistinction  to  rabies  in  other  animals,  while  the  term 
'  hydrophobia '  itself  is  highly  objectionable,  as  based  upon  a 
mere  symptom  that  frequently  or  generally  does  not  exist, 
and  that  is  at  least  non-diagnostic. 

5.  Madness  in  animals  may  mean  any  one  of  several  very 
different  affections,  including  especially  insanity  and  rabies. 
Rabies  itself  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  '  distemper  madness  ' 
(Philpots),  making  'confusion  worse  confounded.'     A  very 
common  and  a  very  serious  mistake  of  a  city  populace  is  to 
confound  mere  excitement  in  the  hunted,  terrified  dog  or 
ox  with  rabies  or  madness.     The  animal  that  is  simply  over- 
driven,  houseless,   starving,    nervous,    and  timid,   becomes 
excited  under  the  influence  of  man's  foolish  hue  and  cry,  and 
naturally  takes  to  flight,  endeavouring,  and  sensibly,  to  escape 
from  its  tormentors.      The  'fury/  'furiosity,'  ' infuriation,' 
'ferocity,'  or  so  forth  that  is  occasionally  developed,  with  its 
accompanying  or  resultant  danger  to  human  life,  is  simply 
and  entirely  due,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  to  man's  own 
stupidity  and  inhumanity. 

6.  The  popular  terminology  of  insanity  in  the  lower  ani- 
mals includes  such  vague  terms  as  'frenzy'  and  'franticness.' 

The  current  terminology  of  mental  philosophy  abounds  in 
sources  of  perplexity  to  the  student.  He  has  perpetually  to 
encounter  the  misuse  of  certain  terms ;  the  inexactness  and 
multiplicity  of  the  applications  of  others,  even  by  professed 
naturalists ;  the  variety  and  contrariety  of  definitions ;  the 
impossibility  of  defining  some;  the  employment  of  others 
sometimes  in  a  vague,  popular,  comprehensive  sense  on  the 
one  hand,  and  in  a  strictly  scientific  sense  on  the  other.  The 
following  are  instructive  illustrations  of  some  of  these  diffi- 
culties or  sources  of  difficulty  : — 

1.  As  has  already  been  shown,  and  as  will  appear  in  the 
sequel,  the  all-important  term  and  quality  consciousness  may 
be  used,  as  it  is  throughout  this  work,  in  its  ordinary, 
popular,  vague,  and  comprehensive  sense  as  applicable  in 
different  degrees  to  man,  the  lower  animals,  and  possibly 


FAULTS   OF  TERMINOLOGY.  17 

even  to  plants;    or  its  definition  may  be  so  restricted  by 
metaphysicians  as  to  be  applicable  only  to  man. 

2.  Sense   and  sensation,  sensibility    and  sensitiveness,   are 
constantly  confounded.      Thus  the  late  Dr.  Baird,  of  the 
British   Museum,   used   the   term    *  sensibility/   instead   of 
'  sensitiveness  '  or  '  susceptibility,'  in  speaking  of  the  effects 
of  weather  changes  on  animals. 

3.  Irritability  is    frequently  used  by  physiologists,  in  a 
strictly  scientific  sense,  as  synonymous  with  mere  sensitive- 
ness to  the  influence  of  a  stimulus— that  is,  with  mere  irrito- 
or  excito-contractility  as  it  exist^  even  in  plants — while  the 
general  public  understand  by  it  irascibility  (of  temper),  and 
the  physician  frequently  a  certain  morbid  state  of  brain  and 
nervous  system. 

The  faulty  or  unsatisfactory  character  of  current  defini- 
tions of  metaphysical  terms  is  freely  admitted  by  metaphysi- 
cians themselves.  The  extreme  difficulties  of  the  definition 
or  application  of  the  terms  used  in  modern  mental  philosophy 
have  been  pointed  out  by  authors  differing  so  much  in  their 
various  points  of  view  as  Darwin,  Lewes,  Laycock,  and  Bain. 
Lewes,  for  instance,  refers  to  the  '  deplorable  and  inevitable 
ambiguity  of  communication  resulting  from  an  absence  of 
strictly  defined  technical  terms '  as  constituting  one  of  the 
*  many  difficulties  which  lie  in  the  way  of  psychological  in- 
vestigation.' On  the  other  hand,  Guizot  has  remarked  that 
'  the  common  meaning  of  a  word  is  much  more  correct  than 
the  scientific  meaning,  which  has  been  given  by  a  few  persons 
under  the  influence  of  a  particular  fact  that  has  taken  posses- 
sion of  the  imagination.'  Hence  the  propriety,  as  it  appears 
to  me,  of  avoiding,  when  possible,  in  such  a  work  as  the 
present  all  strictly  metaphysical  terms,  or  at  least  of 
avoiding,  where  they  must  be  introduced,  all  pedantic  defini- 
tions thereof,  and  of  employing  such  popular  designations  as 
mind,  reason,  intellect,  instinct,  consciousness,  and  so  forth  in 
their  ordinary,  albeit  vague  and  comprehensive,  accepta- 
tions. 


CHAPTER  III. 

AUTHENTICITY  OP   ANECDOTES    OF   ANIMAL   SAGACITY. 

IT  must  be  obvious— it  requires  no  argument  surely  to  show 

that  anecdotes  of  animal  *  instinct '  or  intelligence  are  only 

of  value — they  can  be  used  as  the  basis  of  sound  inferences, 
conclusions,  or  generalisations,  only  if  or  when  they  are  true 
or  authentic,  or  can  be  relied  upon  as  representations  of 
actual  facts.  To  be  of  service  there  must  be  no  doubt  of 
their  truthfulness. 

Unfortunately,  however,  even  of  the  endless  volumes  of 
such  anecdotes  that  have  been  published  in  our  own  language 
and  in  our  own  country,  a  large  proportion  is  valueless  for 
the  purposes  of  science,  because  we  are  furnished  with  no 
proper  guarantee  that  the  incidents  as  described  actually 
occurred.  Either  the  names  of  the  observers  or  recorders 
are  not  given,  or  they  are  those  of  unknown  »persons,  for 
whose  veracity — of  whose  capacity  for  observing,  narrating, 
or  describing  accurately  even  the  simplest  facts — we  have 
no  sort  of  voucher.  In  other  cases  the  narrative  is  clothed 
in  the  garb  of  fiction,  or  there  is  a  certain  amount  of 
poetical  or  sensational  amplification,  so  as  to  make  the 
record  read  like  a  *  story ; '  and  though  perhaps  in  all,  and 
no  doubt  at  least  in  many,  cases  the  fiction  has  been  founded 
on  fact,  it  is  impossible  to  distinguish  the  one  from  the 
other. 

This  being  the  case,  I  have  set  aside  in  my  own  enquiries 
all  anecdotes  that  did  not  bear,  or  appear  to  bear,  the  stamp 
of  truthfulness  or  authenticity  either  in  their  authorship  or 
in  the  incidents  themselves,  or  in  both.  I  have  been  led 
to  prefer  for  my  data  modern  or  recent  incidents,  described 
for  the  most  part  by  living  persons  of  acknowledged  com- 


AUTHENTICITY  OF  ANECDOTES.  19 

petency,  and  to  disregard  all  anecdotes  that  have  been  trans- 
mitted, sometimes  in  many  versions,  from  classical  or  me- 
diaeval times.  Many  of  the  anecdotes  on  which  I  have 
based  my  own  conclusions  regarding  the  mental  status  of 
animals  were  described  to  me  by  eye-witnesses  of  the  inci- 
dents, in  the  truthfulness  of  which  witnesses  I  could  put 
implicit  trust. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  the  Bibliography  will  be  found 
the  names  and  characters  of  works  and  authors  from  whom 
much  of  my  material  for  generalisation  has  been  drawn. 
For  all  incidents  that  are  not  of  the  most  ordinary  kind, 
capable  of  observation  by  anybody  and  anywhere,  as  well 
as  for  all  conclusions  at  variance  with  my  own,  I  cite  the 
name  of  my  authority. 

The  authentication  of  anecdotes  that  are  not  of  the  most 
ordinary  kind,  the  proof  of  the  truth  of  the  incidents  their 
observers  describe,  the  determination  of  the  accuracy  of  their 
narrators,  is  always  desirable  and  generally  practicable.  I 
have  therefore  been  at  considerable  pains,  when  the  possible 
or  probable  result  promised  to  be  worth  the  effort,  to  ascer- 
tain whether  certain  statements — illustrative,  for  instance, 
of  animal  sagacity  or  ingenuity — made  by  anonymous  writers 
in  books,  magazines,  or  newspapers,  were  correct  representa- 
tions of  actual  facts.1 

I  have  repeatedly  applied  or  appealed  to  editors  or  pub- 
lishers, sometimes  with  a  satisfactory,  at  other  times  with 
a  reverse,  result.  That  is  to  say,  that  on  the  one  hand 
either  the  said  editors  or  publishers  assured  me  of  the  veracity 
and  bona  fides  of  their  contributors  or  authors,  giving  me 
their  names  and  addresses,  or  these  contributors  or  authors 
themselves  have  in  writing  acknowledged  their  authorship  of 
the  anecdotes  which  formed  the  subject  of  enquiry,  and 
vouched  for  the  reality  of  all  the  facts  as  narrated,  gene- 
rally as  having  been  observed  by  themselves. 

In  other  cases  editors  or  publishers  have  frankly  admitted 
that  their  contributors  were  not  men  of  any  weight,  scientific 
or  literary — not  persons  to  be  trusted;  in  short,  that  they 

1  Specimens  of  these  enquiries  and  their  results  are  given  in  a  series  of 
papers  mentioned  in  the  Bibliography. 


20  AUTHENTICITY  OF  ANECDOTES 

were  literary  hacks  or  compilers,  probably  unwilling,  if  not 
also  unable,  in  the  haate  of  writing  what  are  vulgarly  known 
as  *  pot-boiler  '  books  or  articles,  to  observe  for  themselves, 
or  even  to  collect  information  at  first  hand.  Such  penny-a- 
liners  were  as  likely  as  not  to  take  their  material  from  for- 
gotten, oldish  works,  whether  such  works  were  of  repute  or 
not  being  a  consideration  of  no  moment,  and  to  serve  up 
in  some  new,  ad  captandum  form  hackneyed  stories  of  a 
sensational  kind  to  meet  the  public  demand  for  what  is 
called  '  popular  science.' 

Like  the  famous  razors  of  the  razor-grinder,  that  were 
made  to  sell  and  not  to  shave,  or  the  equally  celebrated 
wooden  nutmegs  of  the  Yankee  pedlar,  that  were  intended 
to  captivate  and  deceive  the  eye,  not  to  gratify  the  palate — 
the  anecdotes  of  this  class  of  penny-a-liners  are  '  got  up ' 
merely  to  suit  the  wants  and  pander  to  the  ignorance  of 
a  non-discriminating  market. 

It  seems  to  me  desirable  to  indicate  some  of  the  results 
of  my  own  enquiries  as  to  the  authenticity  of  anecdotes. 
The  writer  of  the  description  of  a  certain  '  talking  bird '  (a 
grey  parrot)  in  «  Chambers's  Journal '  *  thinks  it  necessary 
to  preface  the  account  of  his  *  interviewing  '  of  the  animal 
for  journalistic  purposes  with  the  following  explanatory  re- 
marks : — '  A  bird  so  very  remarkable  for  its  powers  of  speech 
is  about  to  be  described,  that  it  will  be  well  to  premise  that 
the  sketch  to  be  offered  is  perfectly  true,  not  the  least  a 
fiction.' 

In  order  to  give  the  reader  opportunity  of  judging  for 
himself  as  to  the  existence  of  the '  parrot  and  the  reality  of 
its  wonderful  mental  feats,  the  author  of  the  article  pub- 
lished the  name  and  address  of  the  owner  of  the  animal — a 
well-known  photographer  in  Edinburgh,  in  whose  town  or 
country  abode  it  may  probably  still  be  seen.2  *I  am 
grateful,'  says  the  author,  'for  his  [the  photographer's] 
kindness  in  authorising  me  to  make  this  statement, 
because  it  will  save  me  from  being  suspected  of  inventing 

1  For  October  31,  1874. 

«  Since  this  was  written  I  have  heard  of  its  death,  in  November  1876. 


OF  ANIMAL  SAGACITY.  21 

the  story*  The  circumstantial  details  were  such  as  to  enable 
me  to  investigate  the  matter  for  myself. 

I  had  no  opportunity  of  doing  so  till  August  1875,  when, 
being  in  Edinburgh  for  a  few  days,  I  called  upon  the  photo- 
grapher referred  to  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  his  parrot, 
and  of  hearing  for  myself  the  character  of  its  'speech.' 
With  Mr.  Truefitt  himself  I  had  a  long  interview  ;  saw  pho- 
tographs of  the  animal,  and  heard  many  anecdotes  illus- 
trating its  intelligence.  Among  other  information  he  gave 
me  the  name  of  the  writer  of  the  article  in  'Chambers's 
Journal,'  who  proved  to  be  an  English  clergyman.  The  parrot 
itself  was  in  the  country — at  Cramond,  near  Edinburgh — 
in  charge  of  Mr.  Truefitt's  mother,  who  was  more  fully 
acquainted  with  all  her  pet  animal's  peculiarities,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  closer  intimacy  of  her  association  with  it, 
than  any  other  member  of  her  family. 

My  object  not  having  been  gained  by  a  mere  conversation 
with  Mr.  Truefitt,  I  devoted  a  day  to  a  pilgrimage  to  Cra- 
mond. There  I  saw  the  bird,  and  had  the  benefit  of  a  long 
interview  with  its  mistress.  The  result  of  all  which  enquiries 
was  that,  though  I  saw  the  bird  to  disadvantage — after  an 
illness  and  just  before  dinner,  when  it  is  always  indisposed 
to  conversation — I  was  convinced  of  the  truthfulness  of.  all 
the  statements  regarding  it ;  for  instance,  those  which  illus- 
trate its  appropriateness  of  remark.  It  so  happened  that 
about  the  same  time  Edinburgh  was  visited  by  a  troupe  of 
performing  dogs,  whose  feats  were  made  the  subject  of  exhi- 
bition at  one  .of  the  theatres.  The  newspaper  reports  of 
course  bepraised  those  feats  as  something  marvellous.  I 
therefore  devoted  an  evening  to  attend  at  the  said  exhibition  ; 
and  here  again  I  was  left  in  no  doubt  as  to  the  genuineness 
of  the  proofs  of  intelligence  called  forth  by  proper  training. 
The  occasional  mistakes  of  the  animals — dogs  of  different 
breeds — were  quite  as  instructive  as  their  more  successful 
performances,  showing,  as  both  did,  the  operation  of  an  in- 
telligence quite  comparable  to  man's. 

Seeing  especially  that  I  have  entered  more  fully  on  this 
subject  elsewhere,  I  cannot  occupy  space  here  with  further 
examples  of  the  results  of  my  efforts  to  establish  the  authen- 


22  AUTHENTICITY  OF  ANECDOTES 

ticity,  or  the  reverse,  of  published  assertions  regarding 
animal  sagacity.  Suffice  it  that  the  following  are  inter 
alia  illustrations— to  be  found  in  the  Bibliography— of 
anonymous  magazine  articles,  having  all  the  aspect  of 
fiction,  which  proved  to  be  in  all  respects  true— viz.  <  The 
Consciousness  of  Dogs,' '  Dogs  whom  I  have  known,*  and  '  An 
Ugly  Dog.'  In  the  Bibliography,  however,  they  do  not  appear 
as  anonymous,  but  are  enumerated  under  the  names  of  their 
respective  authors— Cobbe  and  Murray. 

There  are  certain  common  sources  of  information  con- 
cerning animal  habits  on  which  it  may  be  desirable  to  make 
some  remarks.  I  have  myself  derived  much  information 
from  children,  school-girls,  young  ladies,  elderly  ladies, 
farmers'  wives,  and  other  ladies  who,  with  no  bias  or  pre- 
judice, no  theories  or  speculations  to  support  or  to  disturb 
them,  told  truthfully  what  they  were  in  the  habit  of 
observing  in  their  own  home  pets  or  household  retainers ; 
and  these  pets  or  retainers  included  a  very  considerable 
variety  of  animal  genera  and  species.  The  facts  so  observed 
and  described  were  those  common  facts  that  are  capable 
of  verification  by  anybody  of  ordinary  intelligence — those 
common  facts  upon  which  alone  may  be  based  a  sound  scien- 
tific knowledge  of  the  nature  and  range  of  animal  mind. 

I  have  also  derived  much  assistance  in  the  collection  of 
data  from  newspapers.  It  is  scarcely  possible  to  take  up 
one  of  the  best  class  that  does  not  contain  some  reference, 
direct  or  indirect,  to  animal  habits  in  the  form  of  anecdotes 
of  animal  intelligence.  Not  only  do  newspapers  give  local 
incidents,  with  the  dates  of  their  occurrence  and  the  names 
and  addresses  of  the  observers,  so  that  the  facts  narrated 
may  be  investigated  by  any  enquirer,  but  the  exigencies  or 
customs  of  the  fourth  estate  nowadays  lead  newspaper 
editors  to  draw  largely  for  quotation  and  review  upon  serial 
and  book  literature.  They  furnish,  in  truth,  a  resume  of  all 
that  is  going  on  in  the  literary  or  scientific  world  by  quota- 
tions from,  and  reviews  of,  magazines  and  works  of  every  kind 
— including  those  relating  to  zoology  and  general  natural 
history. 

Attention  is  thus  drawn  to  anecdotes  and  illustrations 


OF  ANIMAL  SAGACITY.  23 

of  animal  intelligence  that  would  otherwise  escape  notice. 
Contrasting  current  newspapers  as  repertories  of  reference 
with  volumes  of  anecdotes  of  animal  instinct,  I  have  found 
the  former  to  be  more  valuable  and  trustworthy,  inasmuch 
as  inter  alia  newspapers  usually  refer  to  passing  events, 
the  records  of  which  admit  of  investigation,  and  the  authen- 
ticity of  which  records  can  at  once  be  established  or  the 
reverse.  I  have  had  frequent  occasion  to  enquire  into  the 
truthfulness  or  accuracy  of  newspaper  paragraphs — of  the 
reports  of  local  'correspondents' — relating  to  singular  in- 
stances of  animal  intelligence ;  and  the  result  has  usually 
been  that,  while  I  have  found  the  same  incident  sometimes 
differently  described  in  half  a  dozen  different  newspapers,  all 
the  essential  facts  have  been  given  accurately,  or  the  dates 
and  names  furnished  enabled  me  to  discover  the  actual  and 
important  facts  for  myself. 

Much  attention  is  now  being  given  to  the  subject  of 
animal  intelligence  in  all  classes  of  our  serials,  whose  num- 
ber, scientific  and  literary,  is  simply  legion.  The  articles 
which  illustrate  or  discuss  the  subject  in  question  are 
not  always  anonymous.  For  instance,  in  'Nature,'  as  in 
'  Science  Gossip,'  the  name  of  the  author  is  frequently  or 
usually  appended,  so  that  the  value  of  his  statements  or 
opinions  may  be  judged  of  by  the  admitted  or  doubtful 
competency  of  the  observer  or  narrator.  But  even  where 
the  articles  are  anonymous,  as  in  '  Land  and  Water '  or  the 
'Field,'  in  the  various  London  or  other  quarterlies  or  monthlies, 
it  is  usually  possible,  sometimes  easy,  to  discover  the  author's 
name,  and  to  gauge  the  veracity  and  value  of  his  assertions ; 
and  we  have  the  additional  guarantee,  in  many  if  not  most 
of  these  serials,  that  the  editors  may  be  trusted  to  admit  no 
contributions  from  authors  who  are  not  competent  to  deal 
with  the  subjects  they  respectively  discuss. 

A  common  and  instructive  feature  nowadays  of  all  classes 
of  serials,  including  newspapers,  is  their  practice  of  re  viewing 
works  of  natural  history,  zoology,  and  travel  by  competent 
critics,  whose  comments  are  frequently  as  valuable  as  the 
quoted  observations  of  the  authors  criticised.  The  modern 
practice  of  publishing  volumes  of  reprints  of  articles  that 


24  AUTHENTICITY  OF  ANECDOTES 

have  originally  appeared  anonymously  as  contributions  to  the 
serial  press  gives  us  occasional  opportunity  of  discovering  the 
names,  and  consequent  competency,  of  the  said  anonymous 
writers  as  observers  and  recorders  of  facts  in  natural  history. 

But  even  when  the  author  of  anecdotes  of  animal  feeling 
and  sagacity  gives  his  name  to  the  public  as  a  voucher  for 
their  authenticity,  fact  may  be  clothed  in  such  a  garb  that 
it  has  all  the  semblance  of  beautiful  fiction,  and  as  such  an 
imaginative  public  prefers  to  regard  and  accept  it.  I 
very  well  remember,  when  in  Edinburgh  some  years  ago,  and 
in  conversation  on  the  subject  of  animal  reason  with  a  lady  of 
much  shrewdness  both  in  observation  and  inference,  a  relative 
of  my  own,  who  had,  like  so  many  of  her  countrywomen, 
been  much  moved  by  Dr.  John  Brown's  well-known  story  of 
'  Eab  and  his  Friends,'  that  she  cast  a  doubt  on  its  truth- 
fulness, regarding  it  as  a  'story,'  and  a  mere  story,  and 
thinking  all  the  more  highly  of  it  on  that  account.  I  had 
myself  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  story  was  fact,  or  founded 
on  fact.  But  calling  on  the  author  himself,  and  discussing 
the  subject  of  the  apparent  incredibility  of  real  enough  occur- 
rences illustrative  of  animal  intelligence,  I  took  the  oppor- 
tunity of  putting  the  question  to  him  personally  and  directly 
whether  or  not '  Rab '  was  a  fact,  and  behaved  as  he  is  said 
to  have  done.  The  answer  was  what  I  had  expected — that 
it  was  all  '  perfectly  true.' 

And  this  leads  me  on  to  remark  that  the  student  of 
anecdotes  of  animal  sagacity  will  constantly  find  that 

Truth  is  strange — • 
Stranger  than  fiction  ; 

that  incidents  which  appear  simply  incredible,  and  which 
are  relegated  to  the  category  of  fable  or  romance,  on  investi- 
gation prove  to  be,  like  Dr.  John  Brown's  'Eab,'  'perfectly 
true.'  A  distinguished  author,  well  known  as  a  canophilist, 
told  me  some  years  ago  that  he  dared  not  publish  certain 
anecdotes  or  incidents  illustrating  the  remarkable  intelli- 
gence of  dogs  and  birds  under  exceptional  circumstances, 
though  he  believed  them  to  be  '  perfectly  true,'  just  because 
they  would  not  be  believed  by  the  public.  They  would  have 


OF  ANIMAL  SAGACITY.  25 

been  regarded  either  as  pure  fictions  or  as  gross  exaggera- 
tions of  the  truth ;  and  in  either  case  his  position — his  re- 
putation— as  the  describer  of  other  incidents  that  were 
only  equally  true,  but  for  which  he  could  better  vouch  from 
direct  personal  knowledge,  would  have  been  weakened  or 
imperilled. 

The  category  of  the  apparently  incredible  in  anecdote  is 
well  illustrated  by  what  used  to  be  called  '  travellers'  tales.' 
The  suspected  veracity  of  such  tales,  and  of  those  who  made 
them  public,  is  notorious.  But  it  has  been  proved  by  modern 
travellers  over  and  over  again  that  stories  long  regarded  as 
fabulous  are,  or  have  been,  simple  facts — for  instance,  those 
of  Bruce  as  regards  Abyssinia,  of  Du  Chaillu  as  regards 
Western  Tropical  Africa,  of  Livingstone  as  to  Central  Tro- 
pical Africa,  and  of  Humboldt  and  Waterton  as  to  South 
Tropical  America.  The  history  of  the  gorilla  affords  a 
striking  instance  of  the  confirmation  of  old  travellers'  stories 
by  the  researches  of  modern  missionaries — for  instance,  those 
of  Dr.  Savage,  the  American  missionary,  in  1847.  Purchas, 
in  1613,  on  the  authority  of  an  Englishman — Andrew  Battel, 
who  had  lived  for  some  years  in  Congo — described  what  he 
called '  pongoes,'  asserting  inter  alia  that  they  *  build  shelters 
for  the  raine  ....  and  cover  the  dead  with  great  heaps  of 
boughs  and  wood.  .  .  .  One  of  these  pongoes  took  a  negro 
boy  of  his,  which  lived  a  month  with  them.'  In  point  of 
fact,  the  evidence  of  modern  traveller-naturalists  is  of  the 
most  important  kind.  I  allude  to  such  men  as  Humboldt, 
Agassiz,  Darwin,  Wallace,  Houzeau,  Bates,  Belt,  Hooker, 
Audubon,  Wilson,  Gould,  Gillmore,  and  a  host  of  others, 
who,  with  competent  natural  history  knowledge  and  the 
desirable  natural  history  tastes,  had  the  inestimable  advan- 
tage of  foreign  travel — more  or  less  extensive — and  who  have 
made  the  best  use  of  their  opportunities  of  observation  by 
placing  on  record  all  that  they  saw  noteworthy  in  animal 
habits. 

Nor  are  we  to  regard  '  old  stories '  as  fabulous  simply 
because  of  their  age.  Though  I  have,  for  the  reasons 
already  specified,  preferred  modern  to  ancient  anecdotes  or 
illustrations  of  animal  intelligence  as  the  basis  of  my  own 


26  AUTHENTICITY  OF  ANECDOTES 

generalisations,  it  is  only  just  to  the  naturalists  of  classical 
times— of  ancient  Greece  and  Eome,  for  example— to  point 
out  that  one  of  the  results  of  modern  research  has  been  to 
prove  the  correctness  of  observers  and  recorders  who  lived 
centuries  before  accurate  observation  or  philosophical  in- 
ference is  supposed  to  have  existed  or  to  have  been  developed 
in  the  progress  of  Western  civilisation.  In  certain  cases  the 
observations  of  Aristotle,  Herodotus,  and  Pliny  have  been 
laughed  and  sneered  at  as  incorrect,  fanciful,  poetical,  or 
mythical,  by  successive  generations  of  more  modern  na,tu- 
ralists  among  the  scientific  and  '  advanced '  nations  of  the 
West. 

Nevertheless,  the  most  recent  researches  sometimes  prove 
the  accuracy  of  the  distinguished  Pagan,  and  the  inaccuracy 
of  the  less  distinguished  Christian,  naturalists.  One  of 
the  most  remarkable  instances  of  this  confirmation  of  the 
soundness  of  the  observation  and  inference  of  ancient  natu- 
ralists is  the  corroboration  by  the  late  Mr.  Moggridge,  at 
Mentone,  in  the  South  of  France,  of  the  observations  made 
on  harvesting  ants  by  Aristotle  hundreds  of  years  ago.  Mr. 
Lee's  observations  at  the  Brighton  Aquarium  on  the  repro- 
duction of  the  octopus  also  confirm  those  of  the  noble  Greek 
naturalist  and  philosopher  Aristotle.  Countenance  at  least 
is  given  to  the  well-known  ancient  fable  of  Romulus  and 
.Remus  by  the  discovery  in  India,  in  recent  times,  of  so-called 
'  wolf  children,'  who,  whether  or  not  they  have  been  suckled 
or  protected  by  wolves,  have  many  of  the  habits  of  those  or 
other  wild  animals,  as  is  fully  pointed  out  in  another  chapter.1 
Much  ridicule,  again,  has  been  expended  upon  the  assertion 
• — repeatedly  made,  and  by  generations  of  naturalists — as  to 
the  *  milking*  of  Aphides  and  other  insects  by  ants.  That  it 
is  nevertheless  a  fact,  that  certain  bees  do  the  same,  and 
that  Aphides  are  by  no  means  the  only  insects  treated  as 
milk  kine,  has  been  shown  in  the  pages  of  '  Nature '  quite 
recently  by  observers  so  competent  as  Fritz  Miiller  and 
Meldola. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  many  stories  in  modern 

1  That  which  treats  of  the  degeneracy  or  defective  development  of  the 
human  mind. 


OF  ANIMAL  SAGACITY.  27 

fiction  that  are  types  or  representations  of  real  incidents  or 
character — are  borrowed  or  transferred  from  actual  life — are 
taken  or  copied  from  nature.  Exact  representations  of  the 
finer  as  well  as  the  coarser  traits  in  animal  character,  par- 
ticularly as  relates  to  the  dog  and  horse,  occur  abundantly 
in  the  works  both  of  novelists  and  poets — including,  for 
instance,  those  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Burns,  Byron,  Cowper, 
Bulwer  (Lord  Lytton),  and  George  Eliot.  Such  anecdotes, 
however,  are  apt  to  be  looked  upon  not  as  genuine  illustrations 
of  animal  character,  feeling,  or  intelligence  just  because  they 
do  occur  in  poetry  or  fiction.  Nor  is  it  easy,  in  such  cases, 
to  distinguish  the  fiction  from  the  fact ;  the  more  so  because 
of  the  inexact  or  erroneous  representations  of  animal  mind 
given  by  other  poets  and  novelists,  including  Shakespeare 
and  Rogers.  In  this  category — of  writers  who  are  too  imagi- 
native to  be  depended  upon,  who  are  untrustworthy  as  to 
their  facts,  who  are  figurative,  fanciful,  and  sensational, 
rather  than  accurate,  in  their  descriptions  of  animal  habits — 
must  be  included  certain  French  and  other  so-called  *  popu- 
larisers '  of  science,  such  as  Michelet  and  Figuier. 

But  the  difficulty  of  discriminating  between  fact  and 
fiction — of  accepting  facts  as  such,  because  to  the  ignorant 
they  appear  to  be  improbabilities — is  daily  being  illustrated 
in  many  other  ways.  For  instance,  there  are  many  worthy 
people — living  at  a  distance  from  the  scene  of  the  incident, 
in  whose  case  distance  obviously  lends  enchantment  or 
romance  to  their  view  of  a  perfectly  prosaic  subject — who 
believe  the  whole  of  the  well-known  story  of  '  Greyfriars 
Bobby '  to  be  fiction,  and  who  ascribe  the  dog's  memorial 
collar,  monument,  and  other  civic  or  private  honours  to  the 
tendency  of  imaginative  men  and  women  to  idolise  their 
ideals  of  animal  virtue.  They  regard  the  old  dog  of  the 
Greyfriars  churchyard,  Edinburgh — long  so  familiar  to  the 
dwellers  in  the  precincts — as  a  mere  myth,  the  poetical 
embodiment,  however,  of  the  human  ideal  of  canine  fidelity 
and  affection.  On  the  other  hand,  people  living  in  Edinburgh 
itself,  and  having  confidence  in  the  observers  and  recorders 
of  the  facts  of  Greyfriars  Bobby's  life,  are  convinced  of  the 
former  existence  of  the  animal,  and  of  the  truthfulness  of 


28  AUTHENTICITY  OF  ANECDOTES. 

the  narratives  that  record  his  attachment  to  his  master's 
grave.  They  accept  the  story,  as  usually  given,  in  all  its 
essentials ;  and  they  are  correct  in  so  doing.  Again,  the 
discussion  recently  carried  on  by  Pouchet  and  other  authors 
—as  recorded  in  the  'Animal  World '—as  to  hedgehogs 
spiking  apples  with  their  quills  shows  that  there  is  the 
greatest  possible  difficulty  sometimes  in  ascertaining  the 
exact  truth  in  current  stories  about  common  animals.  Asser- 
tions on  the  one  hand  are  controverted,  or  their  facts  denied 
on  the  other — the  authors  of  both  assertion  and  denial  being, 
perhaps,  equally  reputable  writers. 

It  has  to  be  explained,  lastly,  that  the  value  of  anecdotes 
is  apt  to  be  greatly  over-estimated.  Apart  altogether  from 
the  fact,  already  pointed  out,  that  every  man,  woman,  or 
child  may  speedily  observe  a  sufficient  number  of  facts 
upon  which  to  base  safe  and  sound  conclusions  as  to  the 
nature  of  animal  'instinct,'  a  few  common,  well-authenti- 
cated incidents  are  sufficient  for  the  same  purpose — quite 
as  valuable  as  a  larger  number,  and  infinitely  more  valu- 
able than  a  host  of  anecdotes  unsupported  by  proper  evi- 
dence of  their  authenticity.  For  this  and  other  reasons  I 
have  deemed  it  both  unnecessary  and  undesirable  to  crowd 
•these  pages  with  any  profusion  of  illustrative  anecdotes 
or  quotations,  which  would  have  the  disadvantage  of  con- 
fusing the  reader  and  distracting  his  attention,  as  well  as 
of  occupying  space  that  is  devoted,  it  is  hoped,  to  better 
purpose. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

STUDY   BY   OBSERVATION   AND    EXPERIMENT. 

BY  far  the  best  way  to  acquaint  oneself  with  the  phenomena 
of  mind  in  the  lower  animals  is  by  the  personal  observation 
of  animal  habits.  I  can  conceive  no  one  so  unfortunately 
placed  as  not  to  have  opportunity  of  observing  the  behaviour 
of  such  animals  as  the  horse,  dog,  cattle,  sheep,  or  poultry, 
or  the  domestic  pets,  such  as  the  cat  or  canary.  Even 
blindness  has  not  proved  a  barrier  to  observation  and  ex- 
periment of  the  most  valuable  kind ;  for  Francois  Huber,  the 
famous  Swiss  naturalist,  distinguished  for  his  researches  on 
bees  (in  which  he  was  able  to  expose  the  errors  of  pre- 
decessors, who  did  not  labour  under  his  physical  disability), 
was  blind.  Nor  is  poverty  an  obstacle  to  observation 
and  enquiry  ; J  for  there  are,  perhaps,  no  more  sincere  lovers 
of  animals,  of  home  pets,  no  keener  observers  of  animal 
character,  than  the  poor,  who  make  real  companions  of 
their  dogs,  cats,  and  canaries,  of  their  horses,  donkeys,  and 
pigs.  The  obstacles  to  personal  observation  are,  therefore, 
merely  nominal  and  visionary.  In  truth,  *  where  there's  a 
will  there's  a  way.' 

The  faculty  of  observation,  however,  requires  to  be  culti- 
vated or  trained.  The  eye  must  be  trained  to  the  accurate 
notice  of  phenomena ;  the  memory  to  the  recollection  of  facts ; 
the  judgment  to  the  drawing  of  logical  inferences  from  facts. 
There  has  been  much  false  observation  and  much  false  or  in- 
correct record  of  facts,  much  false  reasoning  on  these  false 
facts,  on  the  subject  of  what  has  hitherto  been  known  as 

1  As  is  well  illustrated  in  Smiles 's  '  Life  of  a  Scottish  Naturalist  '—Thomas 
Edwards,  the  poor  journeyman  shoemaker  of  Banff. 


80  OBSERVATION  OF 

*  instinct '  in  animals.  Instances  of  faulty  observation,  even 
by  naturalists,  are  to  be  found  in  the  different  accounts  that 
have  been  given  of  the  habits  of  harvesting  ants,  and  of  the 
uses  of  its  tail  by  the  beaver.  Those  who  are  most  intimately 
associated  with  the  lower  animals  frequently  fail  to  notice 
their  mental  peculiarities  from  want  of  the  proper  training 
of  their  observative  and  reflective  powers  ;  while  they  commit 
numerous  errors  of  interpretation  or  inference  from  ignorance, 
prejudice,  superstition,  or  the  other  faults  specified  in  the 
chapter  which  treats  of  the  proper  *  method  of  enquiry ' 
concerning  the  character  of  mind  in  the  lower  animals. 
Thus  the  most  important  information  that  has  been  derived  or 
contributed  on  the  subject  of  mind  in  the  lower  animals  has 
not  come  from  veterinarians,  sportsmen,  jockeys,  cattle  dealers, 
drovers,  shepherds,  butchers,  grooms,  or  ostlers,  but  from 
naturalists,  accustomed  to  the  accurate  observation  of 
natural  phenomena  and  to  a  proper  appreciation  of  the  value 
of  the  facts  of  observation.  Illustrations  of  exact  and  con- 
scientious observation,  and  record  of  facts  or  observations, 
are  to  be  found  in  the  writings  of  Charles  Darwin,  Houzeau, 
Wallace,  Belt,  Moggridge,  Spalding,  Terrier,  the  Hubers, 
Fleeson,  and  many  other  authors,  whose  names  are  generally 
mentioned  in  these  pages,  or  specially  in  the  appended 
Bibliography.  There  is,  perhaps,  no  better  example  to  all 
than  Audubon's  study  of  bird  habits  in  the  forests  of 
North  America. 

All  that  is  necessary  to  an  understanding  of  the  nature 
and  range  of  animal  reason  is  a  study  of  the  commonest 
facts  of  observation — those  which  are  capable  of  the  easiest 
daily  verification  in  the  horse,  dog,  cat,  canary,  and  other 
domestic  animals,  in  almost  every  country  under  the  sun. 
If  once  established  or  fixed  by  common  experience,  such 
facts  can  neither  be  overthrown  nor  explained  away.  Facts, 
however,  must  ever  be  carefully  distinguished  from  in- 
ferences, or  opinions  based  upon  them,  which  may  vary 
ad  infinitum.  The  Eev.  Gilbert  White,  of  Selborne,  has 
shown  how  fertile  a  field  of  observation  may  exist  in  a 
limited  rural  locality;  and,  in  fact,  a  field  of  observation, 
more  or  less  fertile,  is  to  be  found  in  every  farm-yard, 


ANIMAL  HABITS.  81 

kennel,  stable,  byre,  or  market ;  while  it  may  be  produced  in 
every  homestead,  even  in  every  apartment  of  every  man's 
dwelling. 

No  doubt  there  are  certain  subjects  deserving  of  ob- 
servation that  are  not  open  to  everybody,  that  can,  on  the 
contrary,  be  fitly  studied  by  a  very  few  persons,  and  these 
highly  qualified  naturalists — for  instance,  the  mental  en- 
dowments or  aptitudes  of  the  anthropoid  apes.  To  certain 
classes  only  of  the  population,  again,  the  following  special 
fields  or  facilities  for  observation  are  at  command  : — 

1.  Zoological  gardens. 

2.  Menageries. 

3.  Annual  or  periodical  animal  shows,  such  as  those  now 
so  common  in  London  and  elsewhere,  of  horses,  cattle,  dogs, 
cats,  donkeys,  poultry,  pigeons,  and  song  birds — the  ani- 
mals exhibited  belonging  for  the   most  part  to  the  same 
species. 

4.  '  Happy  families ' — another  form  of  peripatetic  popu- 
lar  animal   show,  in   which   different   genera   and   species 
(frequently  hereditary  or  natural  enemies)  are  exhibited  in 
harmonious  groups  ;  such  as  monkeys,  dogs,  cats,  rats,  mice, 
and  owls. 

5.  Aquaria,  marine  and  fresh-water. 

6.  Apiaria,  vespiaria,  and  formicaria  of  all  kinds. 

7.  Aviaries,  dovecots,  rookeries,  and  swanneries. 

Zoological  gardens,  and  more  especially  travelling  menage- 
ries, offer  the  means  of  studying,  for  instance,  the  effects  of 
confinement  and  artificial  existence  on  animals  accustomed  to 
a  free,  active  forest  or  campaign  life  in  warmer  climates — 
including  the  diseases,  mental  and  bodily,  that  are  created 
or  aggravated  by  such  a  change  in  the  conditions  of  being  ; 
the  alteration  of  instincts  or  habits,  of  character  or  dis- 
position— with  circumstances — including  the  development 
of  new  instincts  or  habits,  the  loss  of  old  ones,  and  the  'sub- 
stitution of  vices  for  virtues,  and  vice  versa.  They  offer  also 
great  opportunities — not  hitherto  utilised — for  the  sys- 
tematic study  of  the  range  of  mind  in  the  various  classes  of 
animals  in  the  ascending  or  descending  zoological  scale. 
Animal  shows  or  exhibitions  are  both  the  causes  and  effects 

4 


32  EXPERIMENTS  ON 

of  an  improved  public  feeling  towards  subject  creatures  ; 
besides  which,  they  have  a  distinct  scientific  and  educational 
value.  Dr.  Dohrn,  of  Naples,  Mr.  Lloyd,  of  the  Crystal 
Palace  Aquarium,  and  Mr.  Kent,  of  the  Aquaria  of  Brighton 
and  Manchester,  have  shown  the  value  of  marine  and  other 
aquaria  in  the  study  of  the  habits  of  fish  and  other  aquatic 
animals.  Happy  families  are  most  instructive  and  sugges- 
tive as  showing  man's  power  for  good  or  evil  over  other 
animals,  the  force  of  discipline,  their  capacity  for  educa- 
tion, and  their  power  of  control  of  their  natural  propen- 
sities or  passions. 

Not  only,  however,  is  it  possible  for  every  man,  woman, 
and  child  of  average  intelligence  to  observe  and  reflect  upon 
the  habits  of  domestic  and  other  animals,  and  the  nature 
of  the  phenomena  which  they  exhibit  or  involve,  but  experi- 
ment may  equally  fitly  and  easily  be  instituted  in  order  to 
determine  the  true  nature,  relations,  and  range  of  their  so- 
called  '  instinct/  In  order  to  show  what  has  been  already 
done  in  this  direction,  and  what  may  still  be  accomplished 
by  those  who  have  the  necessary  qualifications,  I  append  a 
list  of  the  chief,  including  the  most  recent,  experiments  on 
the  mental  endowments  of  animals  that  have  come  under  my 
own  notice. 

1.  Moggridge:  on  the  ants  of  the  south  of  France,  in- 
cluding his  interesting  observations  on  '  harvesting  ants ; ' 
the  possibility  of  deceiving  them  by  beads  instead  of  grain  ; 
deterring  or  alarming  them  by  the  sight  of  a  mere  line,  or 
of  dead  or  dying  companions. 

2.  Lublock:  on  ants,  bees,  and  wasps;  their  power  of 
intercommunication,    of  way-finding;   their    perception  of 
colour  and  sound;   the  influence  upon  them  of  light,   of 
alcohol,   of  chloroform;   their  tempers,   affection,  and  in- 
telligence. 

3.  Belt:    on    the    foraging    and    leaf-cutting    ants    of 
Nicaragua,    and   on  the   artificial  production  by   corrosive 
sublimate  of  insanity  in  the  whitefaced  monkey. 

4.  Hague  :  on  the  ants  of  California. 

5.  Huber  (Pierre) :  on  ants  in  formicaria,  and  on  cater- 
pillars. 


ANIMAL  REASON.  33 

6.  Huber  (Fra^ois) :  on  bees ;  changes  in  the  mode  of 
building  their  combs,  the  result  of  unforeseen  physical  ob- 
stacles ;  their  mode  of  dealing  with  pieces  of  loose  comb ; 
the  effects  of  killing  the  queen. 

7.  Latreille,  Nemour,  and  other  authors  :  on  ants. 

8.  The   celebrated  American   author  Dr.  Franklin:  on 
ants  with  the  treacle  pot. 

9.  Pasley :  on  scorpions ;   their    power  of   self-stinging 
and  suicide. 

10.  Boyer  :  on  crickets;  the  effects  of  sound. 

11.  Spalding :  on  birds;  the  nature  of  instinct  in  new- 
born chicks. 

12.  Houzeau:  on  horses  and  dogs;  their  understanding 
of  man's  words  and  conversation,  on  speaking  to  or  address- 
ing them  as  he  would  hare  spoken  to  or  addressed  children ; 
their  knowledge  of  time. 

13.  Nichols:   on  dogs   and    horses;    railway    travel   in 
relation  to  knowledge  of  time,  the  succession  of  events  or 
eventuality,  the  calculation  of  the  number  of  stoppages; 
their  use  of  natural  tools. 

14.  Menault:    on    dogs,  testing   their   power  of  under- 
standing man's  conversation. 

15.  Leroy  :  on  omnibus  mules,  and  on  crows ;  their  ideas 
of  number  and  time,  of  duty  and  relaxation  therefrom. 

16.  Burnett,  Jebb,  and  others :  on  the  dog,  horse,  and 
cat;  their  power  of  way-finding. 

17.  Fleming  :  on  the  pig  ;  the  effect  of  white  colours. 

18.  Ferrier:  on  monkeys  and  other  animals;  the J local- 
isation of  the  functions  of  the  brain. 

19.  Romanes:  on  rats;  use  of  their  tails  in  the  extrac- 
tion of  jelly  from  narrow-necked  jars ;  on  the  intoxication 
of  the  Medusae. 

20.  Gillies :  on  trap-door  spiders  in  New  Zealand. 

21.  Gudden :  on  various  animals ;  effects  of  removal  of 
the  brain. 

22.  Czermak  :  on  birds ;  the  artificial  production  of  hyp- 
notism and  catalepsy. 

23.  Flourens :    on  pigeons ;   results   of  removal  of  the 
cerebral  hemispheres. 


34     .  EXPERIMENTS   ON 

24.  Home   (Sir  Everard) :    on   the   elephant    and  lion; 
effects  of  piano  music. 

25.  Smellie :  on  the  corncrake ;  its  wariness. 

26.  Marville,  on  various  animals ;  the  power  of  music. 

27.  By  many  authors,  on  elephants,   testing   their  in- 
genuity; their  intellectual  efforts. 

28.  Countless  experiments  on  the   dog — sometimes  for 
wagers— to  test  or  show  its  intelligence  or  sensitiveness,  for 
instance,  in  the  use  of  money ;  or  its  fidelity  and  integrity  in 
defence  of  a  trust ;  or  its  power  of  way-finding  home,  when 
taken  over  unknown  ground  by  railways  or  steamboats. 

A  perusal  of  the  foregoing  list  will  show  in  how  large  a 
proportion  of  cases  experiment  was  made  upon  insects ;  a 
circumstance  in  connection  with  which  it  is  desirable  to 
remind  the  reader  how  much  experimental  study  of  animal 
habits  may  be  conducted  under  glass  in  our  own  libraries, 
studios,  parlours,  drawing-rooms,  conservatories,  or  even 
bedrooms ;  for  I  know  of  one  instance  in  which  an  enthu- 
siastic young  zoologist  conducted  salmon-breeding  experi- 
ments in  a  small  tank  fitted  up  in  his  own  bedroom.  Hence 
the  use  of  ferneries,  Wardian  cases,  or  other  forms  of  closed 
glass  vessels,  aquaria,  apiaria,  &c.,  in  the  study  of  the  habits 
of  insects  of  such  interest  as  ants,  bees,  and  wasps. 

The  simplest  experiment  may  give  rise  to  a  host  of  sug- 
gestive reflections.  I  have  myself  frequently  performed  a 
very  simple  experiment — which  may  be  repeated  by  anybody 
— on  the  influence  of  harsh  or  caressing  tones,  looks,  or  atti- 
tudes, on  dogs  and  cats,  in  the  creation  of  confidence  or  fear; 
in  calling  forth  affection  or  repressing  it ;  in  developing  in- 
dividuality, and  testing  character  and  courage.  I  have  over 
and  over  again  found  that  an  angry  word  or  scowl — a 
threatening  attitude — will  cause  some  dogs  and  cats  to  flee 
precipitately  in  alarm — sometimes  backwards  in  case  of 
seizure  by  their  fancied  enemy — while  others  bravely  bark 
or  hiss  their  defiance.  Some  show  unmistakably  their 
doubt  whether  the  experimenter  is  in  jest  or  earnest.  There 
is  obviously  a  conflict  of  feelings  and  ideas  in  their  minds 
when  they  find  a  person  who  is  in  the  habit  of  taking  no 
notice  of  them,  or  of  throwing  them  a  friendly  word,  assum- 


ANIMAL  REASON.  35 

ing  such  forms  of  apparent  hostility.  I  have  often,  by  such 
means,  shown  the  cowardice  of  pet  dogs  that  were  supposed 
by  their  mistresses  to  be  very  brave,  because  of  their  incessant 
barking  at,  and  bold  front  to,  strangers.  On  the  other  hand, 
a  kindly  look,  a  gentle  tone,  a  friendly  advance  is  seldom 
misunderstood — unless  by  the  poor  animal  that  has  been 
rendered  suspicious  and  timorous  by  its  experience  of  human 
treachery  and  cruelty.  In  other  words,  there  is  nothing 
easier  than  for  any  man,  woman,  or  child,  to  give  to  him-  or 
her-self  practical  or  experimental  lessons  in  the  power  of 
human  kindness  to  bring  out  in  response  all  the  better  or 
finer  features  of  an  animal's  nature,  and  of  human  cruelty 
to  develope  all  the  worse  ones — in  man's  influence,  therefore, 
for  good  and  evil  over  the  lower  animal  world. 

Some  of  the  experiments  that  have  been  made  upon 
animals  may  appear  to  be,  or  are  really,  cruel  and  unnecessary 
— at  least  in  their  repetition — for  instance,  those  relating  to 
or  involving — 

1.  The  action  of  alcohol,  laughing  gas,  chloroform,  opium, 
belladonna,  and  many  poisons. 

2.  Mutilation  or    vivisection,  including  removal  of  the 
head  or  brain,  or  portions  of  either  or  both. 

3.  Self-destruction  in  scorpions. 

4.  Various  kinds  of  deception — in  the  form  of  practical 
jokes   or  otherwise — leading  sometimes    to    the    death    of 
the  animals  experimented  on,  including  the  substitution  of 
the  eggs  of  different  species  of  birds,  or  of  stones  or  other 
bodies,  in  the  nest  of  a  hatching  mother-bird. 

5.  Destruction  of  beaver  dams,  birds'  nests,  and  spiders' 
webs. 

There  are,  then,  certain  directions  in  which  experiment 
need  not  be  extended  or  repeated,  especially  by  the  general 
public.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  many  directions 
in  which  extended  or  renewed  experiment  is  not  only  legiti- 
mate but  desirable,  at  or  in  the  hands  of  persons  of  average 
intelligence  and  feeling,  possessed  of  the  necessary  acquire- 
ments— the  power  of,  or  facility  in,  observing  and  recording 
facts,  fertility  of  resource,  and  an  acquaintance  with  what 
has  been  already  done  on  the  one  hand,  and  what  remains 


36  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDY. 

to  be  done  on  the  other.  Spalding,  for  instance,  points  out 
the  desirability  of  further  experiment  and  observation  on 
what  he  calls  '  inherited  acquisition  ' — a  doctrine  capable  of 
experimental  proof  or  demonstration.  Houzeau,  again,  has 
suggested,  as  an  important  subject  for  future  research — in- 
cluding both  experiment  and  observation — the  taming  and 
studying,  in  their  native  countries,  of  the  great  anthropoid 
apes_particularly  the  soko,  which  is  as  yet  known  only  to 
Livingstone — and  other  forms  of  the  gorilla  and  chimpanzee. 
Among  other  legitimate  and  desirable,  and  at  the  same  time 
harmless,  subjects  of  experimental  investigation  by  man  is 
the  eft'ect  of  mirrors,  pictures,  and  patterns  on  various 
animals. 

Many  experiments  are  performed  for  man  by  nature,  by 
disease  or  injury  in  himself  or  other  animals;  but  their 
value  or  importance  is  seldom  evident,  unless  to  the  accom- 
plished or  experienced  physiologist,  pathologist,  or  naturalist. 
In  the  hands  of  such  men,  however,  these  experiments  of 
nature's  may  be  reproduced  artificially — by  imitation ;  so 
that  the  lessons  they  are  calculated  to  teach  may  be  duly 
learned  and  applied.  In  other  words,  the  results  of  human 
experiment  may  be  made,  when  necessary  or  desirable,  to 
imitate  those  of  disease  or  injury ;  or  the  diseases  or  injuries 
themselves  may  be  deliberately  produced. 

The  animals  that  will  best  repay  man's  observation  and 
experiment — and  that  should,  therefore,  be  selected  for  that 
purpose — are  those  that  most  closely  resemble  him,  on  the  one 
hand,  in  structure  and  functions,  and,  on  the  other,  in  habits 
— that  are  most  intimately  associated  with  him  as  com- 
panions, servants,  pets,  adopting,  as  much  as  may  be,  his 
own  mode  of  life.  Hence  the  fittest  subject  for  man's 
observation  and  experiment  is  the  dog — his  constant  friend, 
companion,  servant,  and  plaything ;  so  like  him — probably 
by  reason  of  the  intimacy  of  the  personal  association — both 
in  character  and  habits. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    DAWN    OF   MIND   IN   MAN:     MENTAL   CONDITION   OP 
CHILDEEN   AND    SAVAGES. 

PKIOK  to  a  study  of  the  genesis  and  evolution  of  mind  in 
the  young  of  the  lower  animals,  it  is  all-important  that  the 
student  should  be  previously  well  acquainted  with  the  phe- 
nomena that  constitute  or  characterise  the  dawn  and  gradual 
development  of  intelligence,  on  the  one  hand,  in  the  human 
infant  or  child  of  civilised  races,  and  on  the  other  in  savage 
man  under  the  different  degrees  and  conditions  of  his 
savagery. 

The  mental  condition  of  the  human  child  is  of  special 
interest,  because  various  authors  have  instituted  a  psychical 
parallelism  between  the  earlier  stages  of  growth  of  the  mind 
in  man  and  its  full  development  in  other  amimals ;  in  other 
words,  they  hold  that  throughout  their  lives  or  in  their 
mature  condition  the  lower  animals  are  mentally  in  the  con- 
dition of  children — that  their  mind  in  its  prime  is  essentially 
childish.  According  to  Houzeau,  for  instance,  the  mental 
development  of  the  infant  or  child  at  various  ages  marks  the 
levels  which,  in  other  animals,  intelligence  permanently  at- 
tains ;  and  long  ago  Locke,  while  quite  recently  Carpenter 
and  other  writers  on  mental  physiology,  have  instituted 
similar  comparisons  and  drawn  similar  inferences.  But  that 
there  is  only  a  certain  amount  of  truth  in  such  inferences  is 
shown  by  the  general  results  recorded  in  this  volume,  which 
go  to  prove  the  frequent  psychical  superiority  of  the  lower 
animals — the  dog,  horse,  elephant,  parrot,  or  ape — over  the 
human  child,  and  even  over  the  human  adult. 

Whatever  be  the  result  or  advantage  of  such  a  compari- 
son or  parallelism,  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  propriety 


38  MENTAL  STATUS 

of  the  study  of  the  simple  preceding  that  of  the  complex  in 
comparative  psychology.  And  hence  it  is  obvious  that  the 
student  of  comparative  psychology  should  begin  his  enquiry 
by  the  systematic  investigation  of  the  simplest  forms,  earliest 
stages,  first  glimmerings  of  mind,  reason,  or  intelligence,  as 
illustrated  in  or  by-^- 

1.  Man :  (a)  the  child  of  civilised  races ;  (5)  lowest  or 
savage  man. 

2.  Other  animals :  .  (a)  in  their  lowest  forms ;    (6)  the 
young  of  the  higher  groups. 

Such  a  study  of  the  germs  or  rudiments  of  mind  in  man 
and  other  animals  should  be  gradually  followed  up  by  obser- 
vations on  the  psychical  condition  of — 

1.  Man  in  all  stages  of  savagery,  barbarism,  and  civi- 
lisation, and 

2.  Other  animals,  in  their  different  species,  genera,  and 
classes,  beginning  at  the  lowest,  and  ascending  step  by  step 
in  the  zoological  scale. 

In  the  mental  and  moral  condition  of  the  human  child, 
even  of  the  most  highly  civilised  races  and  of  the  most 
virtuous  and  talented  individuals,  the  following  points  are 
specially  noteworthy  : —  v 

1.  The  language  of  the  infant  consists  at  first  of  mere 
cries  or  calls,  similar  in  character  and  object  to  those  of  other 
animals,  and  particularly  of  their  young.     It  is  by  imitation 
of  the  sounds  they  hear  that  infants  learn  to  speak. 

2.  Consciousness  is  only  gradually  developed. 

3.  There  are  no  innate  ideas  (Melia).     Infants  acquire 
their  earliest  ideas  at  least,  as  other  animals  probably  do, 
from  their  senses  and  sensations. 

4.  Infants  are  wholly  occupied  at  first  with  the  objects 
of  special  sense  and  sensation.     The  infant  desires  only  the 
gratification  of  its  physical  wants  (Pierquin). 

5.  They  are  governed  by  instinct,  appetite,  passion,  un- 
controlled by  judgment  and  conscience  (Elam). 

6.  There  is  no  religious  sense ;  it  has  to  be  created  and 
cultivated. 

7.  The  same  must  be  said  of  the  moral  sense,  or  con- 
science, so  that  moral  responsibility  cannot  be  said  to  exist. 

8.  Education  and  time  are  necessary  to  the  development 


OF  THE  CHILD.  39 

not  only  of  the  religious  and  moral  feelings,  but  of  reflection 
and  thought,  and  to  the  regulation  of  the  emotions  and 
passions. 

9.  The  general  education  or  training  of  the  child  is  on 
the  same  principles  as  that  of  the  pup  or  other  young  animal 
(Carpenter). 

10.  The  predominance  of  emotion  or  emotionalness. 

11.  What  has  been  called  the  instinct  of  cruelty  is  cha- 
racteristic of  the  child,  and  too  frequently  not  only  of  the 
youth   also,   but    of  the   adult,   even   in   the    most  highly 
civilised  races,  as  has  been  pointed  out  by  John  Stuart  Mill 
and  other  writers.      The  natural  or  innate  cruelty  of  the 
child,  and  the  obvious  pleasure  it  takes  therein,  are  quite 
comparable,  for  instance,  to  the  delight  shown  by  monkeys 
in  torturing  their  prey. 

12.  Amongst  other  characteristic  vices  of  childhood  are 
selfishness  and  self-indulgence,  sulkiness  or  pettedness,  com- 
bativeness  and  destructiveness  ;  and  it  is  only  in  the  course 
of  time  that  the  child  becomes  enabled  to  neutralise    or 
overcome  such  vices  by  the  development  of  counteracting 
virtues,  if  indeed  he  is  so  fortunate  as  to  possess  the  requisite 
measures*  of  self-control,  moral  sense,  and  judgment. 

13.  The  sports,  tricks,  and  mischievousness  of  the  child 
so   closely  resemble  those  of  the  young  of  certain  of  the 
lower   animals,  such   as   the  kitten   or  monkey,    that   we 
habitually  speak  of  our  children  being  '  playful  as  kittens ' 
or  '  mischievous  as  monkeys.' 

14.  Fearlessness  of  deadly  danger,  of  poisonous  animals 
or  fruits,  of  risks  of  all  kinds  to  life  and  limbs,  arises  from 
ignorance  and  inexperience.     In  regard  to  incapacity  of  form- 
ing a  judgment  on  matters  that  intimately  concern  its  own 
personal  safety,  or  of  providing  therefor,  the  child  is  ob- 
viously, as  it  is  in  certain  other  respects,  inferior  to  lower 
animals. 

15.  Imitation  operates  as  powerfully  in  the  child  as  in 
other  young  animals. 

16.  Curiosity  or  inquisitiveness  is  as  marked,  and  as  apt 
to  lead  into  danger,  as  in  the  case  of  so  many  animals,  adult 
as  well  as  young. 

17.-  The  mental  potentialities  of  the  child  or  infant  can  no 


40  MENTAL  STATUS 

more  safely  or  surely  be  determined  than  those  of  the  young 
of  other  animals.  t. 

Inasmuch  as  such  an  animal  as  the  adult,  naturally  or 
hereditarily  intelligent,  well- trained  dog — as  has  been 
pointed  out,  for  instance,  by  Miss  Cobbe — has  moral  sense 
and  is  morally  responsible,  with  religious  feeling  of  the  kind 
that  has  been  described  in  another  chapter,  while  it  is 
capable  of  wonderful  self-sacrifice  and  self-control,  and  exhibits 
remarkable  sagacity  and  ingenuity,  with  a  predominance  of 
virtues  over  vices — such  animals  must  be  considered  mentally 
and  morally  the  superiors  of  the  human  infant  and  child,  as 
they  so  frequently  are  also  of  the  human  adult. 

In  savage  races  of  man  the  following  features  in  their 
mental  or  natural  history  are  specially  deserving  of  con- 
sideration, as  illustrating  their  psychical  status  compared 
with  that  of  other  animals  : — 

1.  The  absence  of  fixed  shelter  or  dwellings,  or  their 
rudimentary  character.     Like  feral  carnivora,  primitive  man 
made  use  of  caves,  as  do  certain  savage  races  of  the  present 
day. 

2.  Absence  of  clothing ;  bodily  nakedness. 

3.  Ignorance  of  the  use  of  fire  for  cooking  or  warmth — 
for  instance,  as  found  by  the  Spaniards,  who  first  came  in 
contact  with  the  Ladrone  Islanders  (Biichner).     The  tradi- 
tions   of    the    ancient    Egyptians,    Phoenicians,    Persians, 
Chinese,  and  Greeks  point  to  the  introduction  and  develop- 
ment of  the  knowledge  and  uses  of  fire. 

4.  Absence  of  cookery ;  the  use  of  raw  food,  animal  or 
vegetable. 

5.  Morbid   appetite  and   depraved  taste,  including :    (a) 
Geophagy — dirt-  or  earth-eating — fatal  generally  by  dysen- 
tery  or   dropsy   among   the  Indians   of  the  Orinoco    and 
other   parts   of   South    America,    as   well    as    among    the 
Laplanders  (Gait).     Under  this  head  may   be  classed  the 
indiscriminate     or     omnivorous     appetite    of    the     Pata- 
gonians  (Houzeau).     (6)  Ordure-eating,     (c)  Carrion- eating 
among    the    Zulus.       (d)     Placenta-eating     of   parturient 
mothers.      (e)    Cannibalism,   even   of  their   own   children, 
parents,   or  other    relatives — for   instance,   by  the   Caribs 
(Biichner). 


OF  SAVAGE  MAN.  41 

6.  Filthiness  in  their  personal   habits,  excluding  those 
connected  with  food-eating.      Thus  the  Veddas  of  Ceylon 
show  a  *  habitual  disregard  of  any  sort  of  ablution '  ( Harts- 
horn e).      The    Bushmen    of    South    Africa   'never  wash* 
(Eicherer). 

7.  No  sense  of  decency,  modesty,  chastity,  or  shame. 

8.  Their  main  object  in  life  is  the  gratification  of  their 
physical  wants.     The  only  care  of  the  Andaman  Islanders, 
for  example,  is  food  supply  (Owen).     When  the  Bushmen  of 
South  Africa  'have   enough  food,  they   gorge  and   sleep.' 
(Eicherer).     Most  savages  are  stimulated  to  a  search  for 
food  only  by  hunger.     The  Australian  'knows  almost  no 
other  sensation  than  that  of  the  need  of  food,  which  he  .... 
makes  known  to  the  traveller  by  grimaces'  (Biichner). 

9.  Absence  of  ordinary  foresight  as  to  physical  wants. 

10.  Handlessness,   or   awkwardness   in   the  use  of  their 
hands  (Houzeau) ;  a  disability  common  enough  in  civilised 
man — for  instance,  among  many  of  our  own  peasantry. 

11.  Absence    of    tools,   implements,   and    weapons — for 
instance,  for  fishing — among  the  ancient  Caribs  (Houzeau). 
There  are  either  no  tools,  or  scarcely  any  idea  of  using  them, 
among  the  Mincopies,  while  the  Dokos  have  no  weapons 
(Biichner).     The  first  musical  instrument  alike  of  the  savage 
and  of  the  anthropoid  ape  is  a  rudely-formed  drum  (Houzeau). 
Teeth,  hands,  and  feet,  however,  are  used  as  natural  tools  and 
weapons,  just  as  they  are  by  other  animals.     Thus  Tiune 
mentions  a  Kanake  of  Honolulu,  in  the  Sandwich  Islands, 
who,  climbing  a  cocoa-nut  tree  and  bringing  down  some  of 
the  green  fruit,  'tore  the  outer  husk  off  with  his  teeth, 
getting  purchase  on  the  nut  with  his  feet  and  hands,  like  a 
monkey.' 

12.  Want  of  natural  affection.      '  Mothers  suckle   their 
children  only  a  short  time,  and  then  abandon  them,'  among 
the  Dokos.     Man  and  woman  live  isolated  in  certain  hill 
tribes  of  India — the  so-called  '  ape   men.'      There   is  '  no 
domestic  life  ....  no  attachment  to  kindred '  (Biichner).    In 
East  African  negroes  there  is  'no  attachment  between  father 
and  child ;   but,  on  the  contrary,  there  prevails,  after  the 
time  of  childhood,  a  natural  enmity  between  father  and  son. 
.  .  .  The  children  are  sold ;  the  wife  is  driven  out  of  doors 


42  MENTAL  STATUS 

at  pleasure'  (Burton).  Among  the  Soudan  negroes  there  is 
no  family  or  personal  love.  Of  certain  South  African  negroes 
Dr.  Bainey  writes,  '  It  is  seldom  that  one  cares  for  another : 
the  utmost  they  will  do  is  to  assist  each  other  if  their  back 
itches.  Even  for  their  sick  and  dying  they  have  no  concern.' 
Among  the  Australian  blacks  *  it  is  only  at  the  beginning 
that  the  mother  concerns  herself  about  her  child.  After- 
wards the  original  connection  is  entirely  forgotten' — in  other 
words,  the  offspring  is  callously  deserted.  The  Indians  of 
Tierra  del  Fuego  *  will  sooner  kill  their  old  women  than  their 
dogs'  (Biichner). 

13.  The  universality  of  infanticide.     The  South  African 
Bushmen  f  will  kill  their  children  without  remorse,  strangling 
or  smothering  them  when  food  is  scarce.     When  a  mother 
dies  bearing  an  infant,  it  is  often  buried  alive  with  her,  to 
save  the  trouble  which  it  would  give'  (Bicherer).     Putting 
to  death  the  aged  for  similar  reasons — to  save  trouble  and 
food — is  equally  common.     The  Australian  aborigines  thus 
murder  both  their  young  and  old.     In   New  Caledonia  the 
aged  are  buried  alive  (Biichner). 

14.  No  respect  for  the  dead ;  no  proper  burial  or  burial 
rites. 

15.  The  suckling  of  young  animals  by  women.     Even  at 
the  present  day  Maori  women  give  suck  at  their  breasts  to 
young  pigs  and  dogs ;  *  a  disgusting  habit,  for  which  I  can 
offer  no  reasonable  explanation,'  says  a  recent  traveller  in 
the  north  island  of  New  Zealand  (Tinne). 

16.  Fondness  for  other  animals,  or  the  reverse ;  aptitude 
on  the  one  hand  for  attracting  their  confidence,  and  thus 
taming  them — for  instance,  among  the  Indians  of  South 

America  (Brown) — and  on  the  other  abuse  or  ill-usage a 

propensity  and  practice  only  too  common  also  among  civilised 
men. 

17.  Cruelty  to  each  other,  exclusive  of  the  various  forms 
already    specified,    including    refinement    in    torture    and 
enjoyment   of  the   manifestations    of   pain,    physical    and 
mental. 

18.  Wrestling    for     wives — for     instance,    among    the 
Indians— comparable  to  the  strength  trials  that  characterise 


OF  SAVAGE  MAN.  43 

the  love  rivalry  of  the  lower  animals.  They  fight  as  birds 
and  so  many  other  animals  do  for  the  possession  of  the 
female. 

19.  The  relation  or  proportion  that  mere  instinct  and 
habit  bear  to   reason;    the  predominance   of  instinct  over 
reason  (Darwin).     "What  is  called  instinct  in  the  savage  is 
frequently,   however,   really   the  result— as    in    still  lower 
animals — of  habit  and  reason. 

20.  The  acuteness  of  the  senses  of  smell,  vision,  touch, 
and  hearing,  in  certain   cases;    their  obtuseness  in  others. 
The  Veddas,  for  example,  are  '  quite  unable  ....  to  dis- 
criminate between  colours'  (Hartshorne). 

21.  The  peculiarities  of  their  aesthetic  taste — for  colour, 
form,  sound — in  comparison  with  that  of  cultivated  man. 

22.  Insensibility   to    kindness;     absence    of    gratitude. 
*  The  treachery  of  the  negro  is  beyond  belief,'  says  Baker. 

23.  Combativeness  and  quarrelsomeness.     Many  of  their 
wars  resemble  those  of  ants  in  their  ferocity,  the  causus  belli 
being  perhaps,  the  possession  of  a  woman — as  that   of  a 
white  elephant  is,  or  may  be,  in  Burmah  (Houzeau). 

24.  Want  of  the    moral   sentiments,   and   of  religious 
feeling  or  belief. 

25.  Incapacity  for  education  or  instruction,  for  progress 
or  improvement ;  including  untamability.     Hence  their  in- 
capability for  any  work  useful  to  themselves  or  to  higher 
races  of  mankind.     The  aborigines  of  Borneo — in  common 
with  the  Australian  blacks,  '  on  account  of  their  unbounded 
stupidity,  cannot  be  used  for  slaves ;  while  of  certain  African 
negroes  in  the  American  Slave  States,  a  German  traveller 
writes,  "  they  seem  totally  incapable  of  any  higher  culture  " : 
(Biichner).      Arab   sailors   in  Egypt   are    characterised  by 
possessing  *no  reasoning — no  waiting  for  results'  (Eden). 
The   Andaman   Islanders   are   untamable    (Smith).      'The 
faculty  of   memory '  among  the  Veddas  '  is  almost  wholly 
absent ; '  so  that  a  typical  married  male  '  could  not  even 
recall  the  name  of  his  own  wife,  until  he  caught  sight  of  her 
and  pronounced  it  mechanically '  (Hartshorne).     There  is  no 
'  thought  reaching  beyond  the  narrowest  circle  of  things 
perceptible  by  the  senses '  in  the  negro  of  East  Africa.     He 


44  MENTAL  STATUS 

has  no  sort  of  logic,  and  *  can  deduce  nothing  from  what  he 
has  observed'  (Burton). 

26.  Incapacity  for  generalisation. 

27.  Want   of  originality,   ingenuity,   or    inventiveness. 
In  the  present  Polynesians  *  there  is  no  originality.     Inven- 
tion is  unthought  of,'  says  a  correspondent  of  '  Nature.'     A 
want  of  mechanical  ingenuity  characterises  the  Australian 
aborigines  (Fox). 

28.  Arithmetic  is  rudimentary — where  it  can  be  said  to 
exist  at  all.     The  Apache  Indians  have  no  notion  of  their 
own  age,  or  of  counting  up  years  (Biichner). 

29.  No  idea  of  time. 

30.  No  systems  of  knowledge. 

31.  No  legislation-,  no  social  or  other  laws — e.g.  among 
the  Dokos  (Biichner). 

32.  No   territorial,    tribal,   or   other  property.      Dogs, 
wives,  and  children  are  possessed  in  common  by  the  Aus- 
tralian aborigines  (Houzeau). 

33.  No  history ;  sometimes  scarcely  any  oral  traditions. 

34.  No  policy,  nor  plans  of  action. 

35.  No  form  of  government,  even  by  chiefs  or  leaders — 
e.g.  among  the  Dokos  (Biichner). 

36.  No  traffic  nor  commerce. 

37.  Absence  of  agriculture,  or  any  kind  of  tillage  of  the 
soil ;  sometimes  even  no  hunting  of  wild  animals  for  food. 

38.  Want  of  industry  of  any  kind;  idleness  and  laziness. 
'  There  is  no  inclination  to  labour '  in  the  negroes  of  East 
Africa  (Biichner). 

39.  Absence    of   money   or    coinage — for    instance,    in 
Central  Africa,  where  barter  is  conducted  by  means  of  shells 
or  by  payments  in  produce. 

40.  Imitation    enters    largely    into    all    their    actions. 
When  Lallemant  endeavoured  to  make  a  Brazilian  Botokudo 
understand  anything  "by  signs,  'he  imitated  every  action, 
just  as  apes  do'  (Biichner).     In  this  respect,   as  Pierquin 
points  out,  the  negro  resembles  the  monkey,  or  vice  versa. 

41.  The  absence  of  arts  (Houzeau). 

42.  Navigation  by  rafts,  just  as  in  the  case  of  various 
lower  animals  (Houzeau). 


OF  SAVAGE  MAN.  45 

43.  The  use  of  spies  or  scouts  for  the  same  purpose  as 
in  the  bee — the  discovery  of  suitable  new  dwelling-places 
(Houzeau). 

44.  The  absence  of  laughter.     The  Veddas,  we  are  told, 
'never  laugh'  (Hartshorne). 

45.  Want  of  facial  expression ;  impassiveness  or  charac- 
terlessness— immobility   or   invariability  of   feature.      The 
Digger  Indians  have  a  '  face  void  of  all  mental  expression ; ' 
while  in  the  Brazilian  Botokudo  eyes,  '  without  lustre  or 
soul,'     look     'staring,     dull,    and     without     intelligence* 
(Biichner) . 

46.  No  specific  or  proper  spoken  language — for  instance, 
among  the  Mincopies   (Smith) — and  hence  incapability  of 
conversation. 

47.  No  civilities  or  salutations.     Thus  there  is  '  no  notion 
of  greeting,  either  at  meeting  or  parting,'  in  the  Apache 
Indians  (Biichner). 

48.  Love  antics  comparable  with  those  of  certain  birds. 

49.  Even  the  forms   of  insanity   in   savage   and   semi- 
savage  races  resemble  those  which  are  commonest  among 
the  lower  animals.     Thus  the  running  amok  (or  amuck,  as  it 
is  more  usually  called)  of  the  semi-savage  Malay  is  a  pecu- 
liarly Asiatic  and  barbarous  form  of  human  insanity,  though 
it  is  not  absolutely  peculiar  to  the  East,  nor  to  barbarous 
races — occurring  occasionally  in   Italian  sailors   and  other 
European  peoples.     It  is  characterised  by  a  craving  for  in- 
discriminate murder — a  sort  of  promiscuous  homicidal  mania 
— and  is  strictly  analogous  to  that  form  of  ephemeral  mania 
in  cattle  which  so   frequently  proves  fatal  to  man  in  the 
crowded  streets  of  our  large  cities. 

50.  Their  wonderful  power  of  way-finding  has  frequently 
been  dwelt  upon  by  travellers — a  power  that  is  unconsciously 
exercised  while  it  is  unintelligible  to  and  inexplicable  by 
its  possessors,  the   savages   themselves.      It  is  based  pro- 
bably on  habitual  sensory   impressions,  involving  keenness 
of  observation,  a  quality  which  in  the  white  settlers  in  the 
same  regions — for  instance,  in  the  Australian  bush  (Nichols) 
— leads  sometimes  to  equal  acquisition  of  the  same  accom- 
plishment.   On  the  other  hand,  the  savage,  with  his  supposed 


46  MENTAL  STATUS 

'instinct'  of  way-finding,  frequently  fails  as  a  guide— probably 
from  his  loss  of  the  memory  of  landmarks. 

51.  The  fear  of  what  is  novel  or  unusual  is  quite  as  con- 
spicuous sometimes  as  it  so  frequently  is  among  the  lower 
animals.    Thus  we  are  told,  a  propos  of  the  dread  inspired  in 
certain  jungle  Veddas  of  Ceylon  by  the  sight  of  a  mirror, 
«  The  first  wheeled  vehicle  they  saw  filled  them  with  alarm 
and  terror ;  and  as  they  bent  eagerly  forward  to  scrutinise 
it,  they  instinctively  grasped  the  handles   of  their   axes.' 
Boiled  rice  *  they  at  first  seemed  to  fear  would  make  them 
intoxicated  or  stupified.'     And  it  may  be  added  that  the 
same  kind  of  fear  characterises  the  child  of  civilised  races. 

52.  On  the  other  hand,  curiosity  to  ascertain  the  true 
character  of  objects  new  to  them  is  as  prominent  a  feature 
in  the  savage  as  in  the  child,  and  in  many  of  the  lower 
animals,  adult  and  young. 

I  am  not  to  be  understood  as  asserting  that  all  the 
foregoing  intellectual  or  moral  peculiarities,  negative  or 
positive,  are  to  be  met  with  in  any  one  race  of  savage  men  ; 
but  that  some  of  them  are  to  be  found,  in  various  degrees 
and  combinations,  among  all  primitive  peoples,  there  can  be 
no  doubt,  if  we  can  credit  the  many  eminent  travellers  who 
have  described  the  psychical  condition  of  uncivilised  man. 
That  the  savage,  as  a  whole,  is  low  in  the  scale  of  intelli- 
gence, compared  with  his  civilised  brother,  is  generally, 
perhaps,  conceded.  But  there  are  many  worthy  people, 
whose  wish  would  appear  to  be  father  to  their  thought, 
who,  in  the  face  of  facts  to  the  contrary,  persist  in  believing 
that  a  'potentiality'  for  culture  and  civilisation  exists  in 
all  races  of  mankind,  however  primitive,  however  degraded. 
That  intelligence,  reason,  morals,  are  frequently  so  low  in 
their  stage  of  development  where  they  can  be  said  to  exist 
at  all  as  to  sink  man,  in  countless  instances,  below  the 
psychical  level  of  many  other  animals,  is  what  even  the  un- 
biassed student  will  not  at  first  be  prepared  to  believe — what 
throughout  his  enquiry  he  may  even  be  led  honestly  to 
doubt.  But  his  scepticism — when  it  exists — may  be  con- 
verted into  belief  by  a  careful  study  of  the  intellectual  and 
moral  condition  of  the  following  savage  races: — 


OF  SAVAGE   MAN.  47 

a.  Asiatic  races. 

1.  The  Andaman  Islanders  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  other- 
wise known  as  the  Mincopies,  who  are,   according  to  Pro- 
fessor Owen,  the  most  degraded  race  of  mankind. 

2.  The  natives  of    Cerain  and  Malacca,  or  the  Malay 
Peninsula  (Elam). 

3.  The  Papuans,  or  aborigines  of  New  Guinea. 

4.  Certain  hill  tribes  of  Northern   India,  such  as  the 
Lepchas,  Gonds,  and  Khasias. 

5.  The  Ainos,  or  'hairy  men,'  of  Japan  (Pumpelly). 

6.  The  Veddas  of  Ceylon  (Hartshorne). 

7.  The  Samoiedes  of  Siberia. 

b.  American  races. 

8.  The  inhabitants  of  Alaska  (Houzeau). 

9.  The  Eskimo  of  Greenland. 

10.  The  Digger,  Apache,  Mexican,  and  other  Indian  tribes 
of  North  America  (Houzeau). 

11.  The   Indians   of  Brazil   and   other  parts  of  South 
America,  including  the  Botokudos,  or  'men  of  the  woods' 
(Biichner). 

12.  The  Caribs,  the  negroes  of  the  Antilles,  and  the  other 
aboriginal  races  of  the  West  Indian  Islands,  including  the 
Creole  negroes  of  Jamaica  and  the  slaves  of  Cuba  (Trollope). 

13.  The  natives  of  Tierra  del  Fuego. 

c.  African  races. 

14.  The  Dokos  of  Abyssinia  (Brown). 

15.  The  Nuehr  savages  of  Central  or  Northern  Africa 
(Baker). 

16.  The   Latukas   of   the   region   of   the    Nile   sources 
(Baker). 

17.  The  negroes  of  Eastern  Tropical  Africa  (Burton). 

18.  The  Kaffirs  (or  Caffres),   Hottentots,   Bushmen    (or 
Bosjesmans),  and  other  tribes  of  Southern  Africa. 

d.  Australasian  and  Polynesian  races. 

19.  The   Australian    aborigines,    especially   the    'black 
fellows'   of  Western  Australia.     By   various    authors    the 
native  Australian  blacks  are  regarded  as  a  typical  primitive 
people,  with  a  striking  resemblance  in  their  habits  to  Palaeo- 
lithic man  (Fox). 

5 


48  MENTAL  STATUS 

20.  The  natives  of  Tasmania. 

21.  The  Maoris  of  New  Zealand. 

22.  The  aborigines  of  New  Caledonia. 

23.  The  natives  of  the  Marianne  or  Ladrone  (Thieves'  or 
Lazarus)    Islands,    and  of  other   South   Sea    or    Oceanian 
islands  (Buchner),  some  of  whose  names,  bestowed  on  them 
by  navigators,  bear  testimony  to  the  theftuous  propensities 
of  their  inhabitants. 

These  are  all  foreign,  heathen,  and  coloured  races — 
extra-European,  and  characterised  by  blackish,  brownish,  or 
yellowish  skins.  But  there  are  also 

e.  European  races — even  highly  civilised  Christian  peoples, 
boasting  incessantly  of  their  high  state  of  religious  and  moral 
culture,  that  possess  in  their  very  midst  white  savages,  whose 
intellectual  and  moral  condition  is  quite  as  instructive  as, 
and  infinitely  more  important  than,  that  of  remote  primi- 
tive races.  I  need  only  refer  to  some  of  our  own  country, 
to  wit— 

24.  The  '  savages  of  North  Devon,'  as  described  by  the 
commissioner  of  the  '  Daily  Telegraph.' 

25.  The  labourers   of   the    potteries    and   collieries    of 
central  England,   the   dog-fighters   and   women-kickers   of 
Hanley  and  other  villages  of  the  '  Black  Country  ' — in  more 
respects  than  one  a  country  well  named. 

26.  The  *  gutter  children'   of  the   'wilds   of  London,' 
according  to  Hollingshead  and  so  many  others. 

27.  The  whole  of  the  '  criminal  class  '  of  our  great  cities. 
These  fellow-countrymen  of  our  own  voluntarily  place 

themselves — if  indeed  the  possession  of  normal  freedom  of 
will  be  granted  them— on  a  level  with  what  it  were  a  farce 
to  call,  in  contrast  with  such  men,  the  'lower'  animals,  when 
they  engage  with  bull-dogs  in  duels  of  the  kind  which 
rendered  Hanley  famous  in  1874. 

Among  the  psychical  peculiarities  of  these  our  brother 
men  in  Christian  England  are — 

1.  The  absence  of  any  religious  sentiment  (Elam). 

2.  Want  of  the  moral  sense  in  the  whole  criminal  class 
(Despine).    No  appreciation  of  duty  (Elam). 

3.  Low  general  intelligence. 


OF  SAVAGE  MAN.  49 

4.  Incapacity  for  intellectual  or  moral  education. 

5.  Immorality  of  all  kinds ;  debauchery ;  the  social  evil. 

6.  Depraved  tastes,  including  especially  intemperance. 

7.  Crime,   especially  theft — for  instance,  by  the  profes- 
sional thieves  of  London,  or  by  the  frequenters  of,  or  loafers 
at,  the  Liverpool  docks. 

8.  Cruelty  to  each  other,  of  a  kind  that  it  is  a  libel  on 
other  animals  to  designate  *  brutality' — for  instance,  wife- 
kicking  by  the  Lancashire  navvy. 

It  is  of  importance  to  note  in  how  many  respects  the 
mental  condition  of  savages  corresponds  with  that  of  the 
child.  Thus  we  are  told  that  mentally  the  Australian  abori- 
gines are  'mere  children,'  finding  'amusement  only  in 
childish  tricks  and  trifles.  .  .  .  They  cannot  be  taught  any 
principles.  .  .  .  They  know  no  sentiment  ....  but  only 
unbridled  passions  and  the  sense  of  their  nothingness 
against  the  white  races'  (Madame  Bingmann).  Again,  the 
East  African  negro  '  combines  all  the  incapacity  and  credu- 
lity of  childhood  with  the  obstinacy  and  stupidity  of  age ' 
(Burton). 

It  is  a  corollary  from  the  psychical  parallelism  that 
exists  between  the  children  of  civilised  races  with  certain  of 
the  lower  animals  on  the  one  hand,  and  savage  adult  man  on 
the  other,  that,  as  Houzeau  and  so  many  other  authors  point 
out,  savage  man  is  intellectually  and  morally  indistinguish- 
able from  many  of  the  unfortunately  so-called  '  lower ' 
animals.  According  to  Owen,  Agassiz,  Huxley,  and  others 
of  our  most  celebrated  naturalists,  there  is  no  distinction 
between  the  psychical  phenomena  of  a  Bosjesman  adult,  or 
of  an  European  infant,  or  of  a  mature  cretin,  and  those  of 
such  animals  as  the  chimpanzee,  save  in  degree,  if  even  that 
difference  always  exists.  Where  it  does  exist,  it  is  not 
necessarily  in  favour  of  man. 

Darwin  and  other  writers  have  drawn  a  comparison 
between  savage  men  and  certain  other  animals — in  respect, 
for  instance,  of  morals — not  in  favour  of  man.  Pierquin 
asserts  the  superiority  of  the  lower  animals',  and  no  doubt 
his  assertion  is  well  founded  as  between  certain  intelligent, 
well-educated,  and  well-behaved  dogs,  horses,  elephants, 


50  MENTAL  STATUS  OF  SAVAGE  MAN. 

chimpanzees,  parrots,  or  other  animals  and  whole  races  of 
savage  man — that  '  noble  savage '  who  ran  '  wild  in  woods,' 
and  of  whom  we  hear  so  much  from  Exeter  Hall !  If  the 
student  will  take  the  trouble  of  comparing,  one  by  one,  the 
negative  qualities — intellectual  and  moral — of  savage  man, 
as  hereinabove  described,  with  the  positive  qualities  of 
certain  other  animals — especially  the  well-bred  dog — the 
conclusion  arrived  at  will  probably  be  what  appears  to  me 
the  inevitable  one — that  psychical  superiority  frequently  per- 
tains to  the  *  lower '  animal  and  not  to  man 


CHAPTER    VT. 

EVOLUTION   OP    MIND    IN    THE    ASCENDING   ZOOLOGICAL    SCALE. 

I.   The  Invertebrata. 

So  little  is  at  present  known  of  the  phenomena  of  mind  in 
the  lowest  classes  of  animals,  that  it  is  impossible  as  yet  to 
give  any  comprehensive  and  exact  outline  of  the  genesis  and 
development  of  mind  in  the  animal  kingdom  as  a  whole.  We 
know  a  great  deal  about  the  mental  or  moral  character  of  the 
dog,  cat,  horse,  elephant,  and  other  Mammalia  ;  of  the  parrot, 
starling,  domestic  fowl,  canary,  sparrow,  and  other  birds ; 
of  the  ant,  bee,  wasp,  and  other  insects  ;  but  of  mind  in  all 
other  classes  of  animals  our  knowledge  is  as  yet  and  at 
present  most  limited  and  fragmentary. 

What  are  the  earliest  dawnings  of  mind — whether  they 
are  concomitant  with  the  earliest  appearance  of  animal  life, 
or  whether  they  are  to  be  met  with  in  the  vegetable  king- 
dom— depends  very  much,  if  not  altogether,  on  what  are  our 
conceptions  of  the  constitution  or  essentials  of  mind — what 
are  our  definitions  of  such  things  or  terms  as  sensation, 
sensibility,  sensitiveness  and  sense,  consciousness,  will,  emo- 
tion or  feeling,  thought  and  knowledge,  memory,  instinct, 
intelligence,  and  so  forth. 

If  we  use  such  terms  in  their  widest  and  general  accepta- 
tions, we  must  regard  mind  as  beginning  in  the  vegetable 
kingdom.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  re-define  all  these,  and 
allied  or  included,  terms,  so  as  to  be  applicable  to  man  alone, 
or  to  man  and  other  animals,  difficulties  of  an  insuperable 
kind  will,  I  fear,  be  met  with.  Any  such  re-definition,  more- 
over, will  necessitate  the  multiplication  of  technical  terms 
for  the  distinguishing  of  processes  which  I  believe  to  be 


52  EVOLUTION  OF    MIND 

essentially  the  same  in  plants,  the  lower  animals,  and  man  ; 
and  such  a  multiplication  of  terms  will  only  still  further 
confuse  a  subject  already  rendered  needlessly  intricate  by 
man's  ingenious  refinements  in  word-splitting. 

Though  our  present  knowledge  is  fragmentary  and  un- 
precise,  it  is  nevertheless  desirable  to  attempt  a  general 
sketch  of  the  kind  and  amount  of  data  we  possess,  upon  or 
from  which  to  begin  the  construction  of  a  future  science  of 
comparative  psychology.  It  is  proper  to  expose  our  ignorance 
and  deficiencies,  in  order  to  point  out  to  the  student  the 
direction  in  which  research  is  desirable  and  likely  to  yield 
profitable  results. 

Beginning  with  the  lowest  subkingdom  of  the  Inver- 
tebrata — the  Protozoa  of  zoologists — certain  of  the  Infusoria, 
or  Rhizopoda,  according  to  Dr.  Carter,  exhibit  will,  deter- 
mination, fixed  purpose  or  aim,  intention,  cunning,  in- 
genuity in  the  adaptation  of  means  to  an  end,  the  re- 
cognition of  food  and  the  selection  thereof.  The  Vorticella 
is  said  to .'  contract  itself  upon  its  stem  when  alarmed  or 
irritated'  (*  Globe  Encyclopaedia').  Among  the  Rhizopoda 
Carpenter  refers  to  the  selection  of  the  materials  of  con- 
struction by  and  to  constructive  art  in  Amoeba;  while 
Houzeau  mentions  way-finding  to  food  supply  in  Actinophrys-, 
and  Carter  assigns  to  both  animals  observation,  will,  and 
intention  in  their  food-search.  Pouchet  speaks  of  the 
Amoeba — the  so-called  proteus  animalcule — changing  its 
shape  'at  will.'  In  the  Protozoa  feeling  is  excited  by 
external  impressions. 

Here  we  have,  then,  at  the  very  base  or  beginning  of  the 
zoological  scale,  in  the  capture  of  prey  a  whole  series  of  mental 
phenomena  exhibited — will,  purpose,  choice,  ingenuity,  obser- 
vation, feeling ;  and  these  aptitudes  doubtless  involve  others, 
such  as  sensation  and  consciousness,  patience  and  perse- 
verance. It  seems  incontestable  that  choice  or  preference 
in  the  selection  of  food  is  a  characteristic  of  the  very  lowest 
animals.  And  if  this  be  the  case,  certain  at  least  of  the 
mental  qualities  above  specified— with  others— are  necessa- 
rily involved. 

Ascending  a  stage  higher,  among  the  Coslenterata  we  have, 


IN  THE    INVERTEBRATA.  53 

in  the  new  Theco-medusa  of  Professor  Allman,  and  in  Campanu- 
laria — each  individual  retiring  into  its  horny  dwelling  when 
danger  threatens — a  phenomenon  that  involves  a  sense  of 
danger,  a  knowledge  of  the  means  of  avoiding  or  escaping 
it,  and  the  adoption  of  these  suitable  means  in  prompt 
action.  What  is  essentially  the  same  process,  however,  has 
already  been  described — in  Vorticella — among  the  Protozoa 
(Infusoria}.  In  the  pursuit  and  capture  of  prey  various  of 
the  Ccelenterata '  excel  in  dexterity,'  Dr.  Macintosh,  of  British 
annelid  celebrity,  writes  to  me.  Dr.  Andrew  Wilson  speaks 
of  the  '  intelligent  seizure  of  matter  or  pabulum  adapted  to 
its  growth '  by  the  Hydra. 

In  the  third  subkingdom — the  Annuloida  and  of  its  class 
the  Echinodermata — we  are  told  that  brittle  stars  'can  scarcely 
be  procured  for  a  museum  in  a  tolerably  perfect  state,  be- 
cause they  throw  off  ray  after  ray,  and  in  fact  break  them- 
selves to  pieces,  upon  any  alarm '  ('  Chambers's  Encyclo- 
paedia ').  The  'Guide  to  the  Brighton  Aquarium'  also  speaks 
of  this  habit  of  starfishes,  '  when  irritated,  of  dismembering 
their  bodies  by  throwing  off  their  arms.  The  spiny  star 
....  has  shown  a  tendency  to  so  mutilate  itself ;  and  this 
practice  extends  to  every  specimen  yet  introduced  into  the 
Aquarium.'  Houzeau,  too,  points  out  the  effect  of  emotion 
on  Ophiocoma  in  causing  it  to  fall  to  pieces. 

In  the  fourth  subkingdom — the  Annulosa — a  considerably 
greater  range  or  variety  of  mental  phenomena  is  met  with. 
Among  the  Annelida,  the  Tubicolse,  or  tube  worms,  retreat 
into  their  abodes '  at  the  slightest  alarm ; '  a  phenomenon,  as 
we  have  seen,  that  occurs  even  among  the  Protozoa.  There  is 
selection  of  materials  of  construction,  as  well  as  constructive 
art,  in  Terebella  (Carpenter) — phenomena,  however,  that  are 
to  be  found  so  low  down  in  the  zoological  scale  as  Amoeba. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  angler  desiring  bait  has  only 
to  create  slight  succussion  of  the  soil,  by  stamping  on  it,  to 
lead  his  prey,  the  earthworm,  to  come  to  the  surface,  a  cir- 
cumstance usually  attributed  to  the  dread  of  its  enemy  the 
mole,  which  makes  a  somewhat  similar  movement  of  the 
earth  in  its  mining  operations.  If  the  fact  be  as  stated,  and 
its  explanation  be  accepted,  we  must  have  here  a  distinct 


54  EVOLUTION  OF  MIND 

dread  of  one  enemy,  and  a  knowledge  of  its  operations,  with 
ignorance,  however,  of  the  ruses  of  another  more  formidable 
one.  There  must  be  an  association  of  ideas,  though  an  erro- 
neous one — an  error  of  inference  from,  or  interpretation  of, 
a  sensation.  There  is,  in  short,  an  early  illustration  of  the 
fallibility  of  instinct. 

Dr.  Strethill  Wright,  a  very  competent  authority, 
obviously  ascribes  intelligence  to  the  female  8pio  seticornis 
when  he  says  of  her  that  she  '  has  all  her  senses  about  her.' 
The  emotion  of  fear  and  the  realisation  of  danger  are 
common  in  crabs,  lobsters,  and  other  Crustacea.  Mrs.  Treat, 
of  New  Jersey,  saw  a  Cypris,  an  entomostracous  crusta- 
cean, *  slowly  walking  round  a  bladder  [of  Utricularia 
clandestine^,  as  if  reconnoitring.  .  .  .  Coming  to  the 
entrance  of  a  bladder,  it  would  sometimes  pause  a 
moment  and  then  dash  away.  At  other  times  it  would 
come  close  up,  and  even  venture  part  of  the  way  into 
the  entrance,  and  back  out  as  if  afraid.  Another,  more  heed- 
less, would  open  the  door  and  walk  in.  But  it  was  no 
sooner  in  than  it  manifested  alarm — drew  in  its  feet  and  an- 
tennae and  closed  its  shell '  (Darwin). 

Will  is  involved  in  the  opening  and  shutting  of  the  cara- 
pace of  the  common  Cypris,  while  the  search  for  food  is 
probably  common  to  these  and  other  minute  aquatic  animals 
(Darwin),  as  it  is  even  to  the  Protozoa.  Bates  and  Gardner 
assert  that  will,  in  the  form  of  voluntary  determinate  action, 
is  displayed  by  certain  Crustacea ;  while  Houzeau  assigns 
to  them  memory.  There  is  perception  of  time  also,  as 
illustrated  by  the  observance  of  regular  feeding  hours 
(Houzeau). 

Buckland  describes  fear  and  the  sense  of  danger  in  crabs 
in  presence  of  the  octopus  in  the  Brighton  Aquarium.  Of 
the  amphibious  crabs  of  St.  Paul's  Kocks  Professor  Sir  Wyville 
Thomson  writes,  '  They  were  much  more  wary  than  the  birds. 
It  was  by  no  means  easy  to  catch  them  ;  but  they  kept  close 
round  the  luncheon  baskets  in  large  parties,  raised  up  on  the 
tips  of  their  toes,  with  their  eyes  cocked  up  in  an  attitude  of 
the  keenest  observation.  And  whenever  a  morsel  came  within 
their  reach  there  was  instantly  a  struggle  for  it  among  the 


IN  THE  INVERTEBRATA.  55 

foremost  of  them.'  *  They  had,'  he  adds,  '  a  look  of  human 
smartness  about  them,  which  had  a  kind  of  weirdness,  from 
being  exhibited  through  a  set  of  organs  totally  different  in 
aspect  from  those  to  which  we  usually  look  for  manifesta- 
tions of  intelligence.'  Some  other  crabs  post  sentinels  when 
changing,  their  shells  (Watson). 

The  hermit  crab  seizes  the  dwellings  of  other  animals — the 
shells  of  Mollusca — killing  the  said  animals  themselves,  accor- 
ding to  some  authors;  but  in  some  cases  at  least,  when  the  shell 
is  inhabited  by  a  living  mollusc,  waiting  till  its  death,  and  then 
tearing  it  out,  devouring  it,  and  taking  possession  of  its  empty 
abode.  According  to  Professor  Alex.  Agassiz,  they  carefully  ex- 
amine these  shells,  as  to  their  suitability,  before  adopting  them 
as  their  homes,  settling  down  l  with  immense  satisfaction '  in 
those  they  select.  The  stratagems  and  manoeuvres,  moreover, 
of  rival  hermit  crabs,  desirous  of  possessing  the  same  shell, 
are  described  by  a  recent  journalist  as. '  the  funniest  sight  in 
the  world.'  Further,  a  certain  species  of  hermit  crab  shows 
*  care  and  affection '  for  the  cloak  anemone  which  is  attached 
to  its  shell  home.  '  He  has  been  noticed  to  feed  the  anemone 
with  his  pincerlike  claws.'  And  when  he  casts  his  shell  for 
a  larger  one, '  he  carefully  detaches  the  helpless  anemone  from 
the  old  habitation,  and  assists  it  in  gaining  a  firm  basis 
and  support  on  the  new  shell.'  Hermit  crabs  are  further 
noted  for  their  pugnacity  and  for  their  cunning  in  attack, 
which  they  make  at  unawares. 

Pliny  credited  the  pea  crab  with  observation,  watchful- 
ness, adaptation,  friendship,  and  jealousy;  but  his  opinions 
have  been  generally  regarded  as  Utopian,  the  mental 
qualities  ascribed  to  such  an  animal  as  fabulous.  That 
certain  crabs  possess  all  these,  and  many  other,  mental 
aptitudes  is  no  longer,  however,  a  matter  of  doubt,  thanks 
in  great  measure  to  the  opportunities  of  studying  their 
habits  afforded  by  marine  aquaria.  And  this  is  just  one 
of  the  points  in  regard  to  which  the  most  modern  and 
advanced  have  proved  certain  ancient  or  classical,  and  sup- 
posed ignorant,  authors  to  be  correct,  both  in  their  observa- 
tions and  inferences. 

Lobsters  show  mental  qualities  of   a  higher  kind  than 


/>6  EVOLUTION    OF    MIND 

those  characteristic  of  crabs.  Thus  one  described  as  a 
lady's  pet  in  Paris  '  seems  to  recognise  its  mistress,  and  is 
so  fond  of  music  that  it  is  always  drawn  to  the  piano  when- 
ever she  plays.'1  •  Lobsters  show  affection  for  their  young, 
warning  them  of  danger,  both  young  and  old  seeking  shelter 
when  peril  is  threatened  or  imminent.  The  old  lobster,  in 
alarm  from  danger,  rattles  its  claws  (Peach).  According  to 
Pennant,  lobsters  '  fear  thunder,  and  are  apt  to  cast  their 
claws  on  a  great  clap.  I  am  told  they  will  do  the  same  thing 
on  firing  a  great  gun.'  That  these  are  facts  has  been  proved 
by  the  testimony  of  many  subsequent  observers.  One  of 
the  latest,  a  writer  in  *  Land  and  Water,'  says  in  regard  to  a 
*  most  extraordinary  clap  of  thunder  ....  forty  lobsters  not 
only  shed  their  claws,  but  many  of  their  lesser  legs,'  a  cir- 
cumstance that  seems  parallel  to  the  casting  of  the  limbs  by 
the  Ophiuridce.  Among  the  Annuloida  sudden  exposure  to 
light  is  stated  by  the  same  writer  to  have  produced  a  similar 
effect.  A  large  number  of  lobsters  having  been  kept  alive 
in  a  dark  coal-cellar  for  three  or  four  days,  till  required  for 
the  table,  *  immediately  upon  being  exposed  to  the  light  shed 
all  their  large  claws.'  In  both  cases  we  have  a  marked  in- 
stance of  a  physical  result  instantaneously  brought  about  by  a 
startling  impression  on  the  senses — of  hearing  in  the  one  case, 
of  vision  in  the  other. 

Among  the  Arachnida  the  intelligence,  industry,  inge- 
nuity, perseverance,  cunning,  and  other  mental  qualities  of 
spiders  are  well  known.  An  Australian  spider  constructs  a 
door  with  bolts  (Baden  Powell).  There  are  trap-door 
spiders,  that  construct  and  make  use  of  a  self-acting  hinge 
to  their  door,  which,  as  mere  machinery,  is  superior  to  much 
of  man's  (Baird  and  Moggridge).  Our  ordinary  British  and 
other  spiders  devise  means  for  overcoming  difficulties,  and 
make  repairs  of  their  webs,  temporary  or  permanent  (Wat- 
son). They  must  appreciate  losses  before  making  them 
good ;  they  must  estimate  weakness  before  they  strengthen 
weak  threads.  They  have  a  knowledge  of  mechanical  strain ; 
they  vary  the  structure  of  their  web  with  its  position  (Hou- 
7<eau).  They  even  test  the  strength  or  security  of  their  webs 

1  « North  British  Daily  Mail,'  Feb.  8,  1875. 


IN  THE  INVERTEBRATA.  57 

('Percy  Anecdotes').  They  are  liable  to  be  deceived  and  to 
commit  errors,  but  they  discover  and  rectify  their  mistakes. 
Some  of  them  are  bold  and  courageous ;  hence  the  specific 
name  of  one  of  them,  Galeodes  intrepida  (Baird) . 

Others  are  weatherwise  in  a  sense :  they  have  a  physical 
presentiment  of  coming  atmospheric  changes,  by  being  ex- 
tremely sensitive  to  weather  vicissitudes.  These  weather 
changes  produce  an  immediate  effect  on  their  habits, 
inducing  either  industry  or  idleness,  vivacity  or  languor, 
as  the  case  may  be.  As  delicate  indicators  of  weather 
change,  they  are  said  to  be  superior  to  man's  meteoro- 
logical instruments  ('Percy  Anecdotes').  Lastly,  they  are 
adepts  at  spinning  or  tapestry -weaving.  The  tarantula 
spider  and  the  scorpion  sometimes  attack  man  from  revenge 
or  fear  (Kirby  and  Spence).  The  scorpion  is  one  of  the 
animals  which  seems  deliberately  to  commit  suicide  by 
stinging  itself  fatally,  a  circumstance  that  will  be  further 
alluded  to  in  the  chapter  on  '*  Suicide.'  It  does  so  under 
the  influence  of  such  motives  as  fear  or  despair.  Hou- 
zeau  describes  memory  as  a  characteristic  of  the  Arachnida, 
as  well  as  a  certain  perception  of  time,  inasmuch  as  they 
observe  regular  feeding  hours,  a  phenomenon  also  exhibited 
by  certain  Crustacea.  A  writer  in  *  Science  Gossip '  describes 
a  trap-door  spider  as  '  fairly  trembling  with  excitement  and 
impatience '  on  the  approach  of  prey. 

Certain  Centipedes,  among  the  Myriapoda,  sometimes 
attack  man  from  revenge  or  fear,  as  do  also  the  tarantula 
spider  and  scorpion  (Kirby  and  Spence).  But  we  know  very 
little  of  the  mental  characteristics  of  the  Myriapoda. 

Of  the  class  Insecta  we  know  a  great  deal  as  to  the  mental 
character  of  the  bee,  ant,  and  wasp,  belonging  to  the  order 
Hymenoptera ;  of  the  Termites,  belonging  to  the  order  Neurop- 
tera,  and  of  many  beetles  representing  the  order  Coleoptera. 
So  much  has  been  written  regarding  the  so-called  instinct  or 
intelligence  of  the  ant  and  the  bee,  so  accessible  are  the  works 
of  the  Hubers,  Kirby  and  Spence, Westwood,  Wood,  and  other 
authors,  that  it  would  be  a  waste  of  space  to  recapitulate 
their  descriptions  here.  But  it  would  be  equally  improper 
to  dismiss  the  important  class  Insecta  without  illustrations 


58  EVOLUTION    OF    MIND 

— taken  from  other  orders  and  genera  than  those  above 
mentioned — of  their  mental  character,  of  the  wonderful 
degree  or  kind  of  intelligence  that  pervades  it.  Nor  is  it 
possible  or  proper  to  omit  a  summary  of  the  leading 
psychical  characteristics  of  such  insects  as  the  ant,  bee, 
and  wasp,  because  it  is  most  important  by-and-by  to  com- 
pare these  characteristics  with  the  mental  endowments  of 
some  of  the  highest  even  of  the  Vertebrata. 

Tn  a  psychical  point  of  view,  by  far  the  most  interesting 
order  of  the  Insecta  is  that  of  the  Hymenoptera ;  while  of  the 
Hymenoptera  by  far  the  most  important  genera  and  species 
are  the  various  ants.  It  is  unnecessary  for  present  purposes 
to  point  out  the  names  and  number  of  these  genera  and 
species,  which  are  to  be  found  in  the  Appendix ;  but  it 
is  always  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  term  '  ant '  is  a 
very  comprehensive  one,  infinitely  more  so  than  '  man,' 
'dog/  'horse,'  or  'cat,'  of  each  of  which  there  is  only  a 
single  species  and  genus.  The  mental  character  of  one 
species  or  genus  of  ant  is  not,  therefore,  necessarily  that  of 
another ;  on  the  contrary,  there  is  the  same  kind,  and  even 
a  greater  degree,  of  psychical  variety  among  the  different 
genera  and  species  of  ant  than  among  the  different  races  or 
breeds  of  man,  the  dog,  horse,  or  cat,  or  among  individuals 
in  man.  This  subject,  however,  is  more  fully  treated  of  in 
the  chapter  on  '  Individuality.' 

It  is  only  possible  here  to  summarise,  by  a  sort  of  tabu- 
lation, the  leading  psychical  characteristics  of  ants  as  a 
group.  These  characteristics  include,  then— 

1.  Co-operation  for  a  given  purpose. 

2.  Division  of  labour,  including  the  working  by  turns 
and  the  use  of  relief  parties. 

3.  Use   of,  and  obedience   to,  authority,   including  the 
employment  of  a  language  of  command. 

4.  Understanding  each   others'   language — a   language 
apparently  of  touch. 

5.  Organisation  of  ranks,  including  military  organisation 
and  discipline. 

6.  Knowledge  of  the  possession  of  power,  and  the  use 
of  it,  including  the  subjection  of  the  weak  by  the  strong, 


IN  THE  1NVEKTEBRATA.  59 

and  the  subserviency  or  servitude  of  one   race  or  rank  to 
another. 

7.  Judicial  punishment  of  disobedience  or  rebellion. 

8.  Forethought  or  providence,  real  or  apparent. 

9.  Practice    of    agriculture,   including    harvesting    and 
storage. 

10.  Eespect  for,  including  interment  of,  the  dead. 

11.  Mourning  in  bereavement,  or  its  semblance. 

12.  Funeral  or  other  ceremonies,  including  processions. 

13.  Use  of  natural  tools  or  instruments  and  weapons. 

14.  The  passion  of  rage  or  anger. 

15.  Imagination  and  its  derangement  in  delusion — e.g. 
in  the  results  of  braidism. 

Of  the  Neuroptera,  the  Termites  or  Termitidee,  or  white 
ants,  exhibit  the  same  kind,  and  almost  the  same  range,  of 
mental  phenomena  as  the  true  ants.  Some  of  them,  for 
instance,  are  represented  as  being  agriculturists,  cultivating 
fungi  in  their  subterranean  galleries,  on  the  walls  of  the 
nurseries  for  the  young.  They  exhibit  foresight  in  the 
construction  of  long  clay  chimneys  for  communication  with 
air  or  land,  or  both,  during  inundations  (Houzeau).  They 
establish  colonies  (Kirby  and  Spence).  There  are  ranks  in 
their  societies,  with  corresponding  division  of  labour  (West- 
wood).  They  search  for  food,  take  care  of  eggs  and  young  ; 
recognise  and  perform  certain  duties  and  obligations ;  have 
a  sort  of  worship  even  in  the  adoration  of  their  queen.  They 
have  an  ideal  and  ideas  of  fecundity  in  connection  with  this 
queen.  Their  soldiers  exhibit  wonderful  pertinacity,  and 
are  capable  of  self-sacrifice  (Michelet).  Their  edifices  or 
constructive  works  include  galleries  and  corridors,  maga- 
zines, nurseries,  royal  chambers  and  hall,  offices,  ordinary 
rooms  and  egg  rooms,  floors  and  ceilings,  pillars,  and  other 
appurtenances. 

Many  of  the  Coleoptera — beetles — are  distinguished  for 
their  cautiousness.  They  experiment  by  touch,  and  thus 
acquire  convictions  of  safety  or  the  reverse.  They  test  the 
strength  of  materials  (Wa,tson  and  Berkeley).  They  counter- 
feit death  when  alarmed,  in  danger  manifesting  remarkable 
self-possession  or  presence  of  mind.  They  ask  and  obtain 


60  EVOLUTION   OF  MIND 

assistance  from  each  other ;  they  co-operate  efficiently  for  a 
common  end,  and  they  show  marvellous  ingenuity  in  com- 
passing that  end  (Gleditsch).  There  is  great  readiness  in 
the  seizure  of  opportunity — for  instance,  to  escape  an  enemy 
or  a  danger  (Figuier).  The  Carabidce,  in  attack,  use  force,  or 
they  entrap  by  ambuscades  or  pitfalls,  as  circumstances  may 
require  (Baird).  The  tiger  beetle  is  so  called  from  its  ferocity 
of  disposition,  especially  in  war.  Its  pugnacity  and  perti- 
nacity are  notorious  (Westwood).  Not  a  few  beetles  show 
the  fortitude  of  the  Red  Indian  in  allowing  themselves  to  be 
roasted  alive  without  flinching.  Beetles,  moreover,  mani- 
fest mutual  affection  (Darwin). 

In  the  order  Hemiptera,  Aphides  become  domesticated, 
and  happy  in  their  state  of  domestication,  as  servants  or  slaves 
to  ants.  They  occupy  the  position  to  ants  that  milk  cows 
do  to  man,  yielding,  at  the  desire  of  their  masters,  the 
coveted  honey-dew — a  saccharine  fluid  of  which  the  ants 
are  very  fond  (Meldola,  Figuier,  Kirby  and  Spence).  They 
understand  the  mimic  language  of  the  ants  when  honey  dew 
is  wantedr-the  peculiar  strokes  or  touches  of  their  antennae, 
which  are  used,  perhaps,  both  to  signify  their  wishes 
and  to  stimulate  the  secretion.  The  ants  caress  their  ser- 
vants, coaxing  them  to  the  desired  secretion.  The  herds  of 
Aphides  are  f  milked '  regularly  by  their  proprietors ;  the 
honey  dew  is  drawn  off  very  much  as  milk  is.  And  so  much 
are  this  honey  dew  and  its  producers  valued  by  the  ants, 
that  the  possession  of  honey-giving  Aphides  becomes  a  sub- 
ject of  questions  of  property,  and  thereby  of  ant  wars  (Hou- 
zeau),  which  wars  are  undertakings  of  a  very  systematic  kind 
and  on  a  large  scale.  The  female  water-bug  exerts  choice  in 
mating.  She  can  and  she  does  entertain  and  express  her 
aversion  to  particular  males  (White). 

Among  the  Orthoptera,  the  male  cricket  expresses,  by 
means  of  sounds,  pugnacity,  rivalry,  satisfaction,  and  alert- 
ness ;  and  it  foretells  rain  in  the  same  way  (White).  Baird 
refers  to  its  timidity  or  readiness  to  take  alarm,  and  Figuier 
also  represents  it  as  easily  scared  by  certain  sounds.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  is  fascinated  or  charmed  by  vocal  har- 
mony, is  attracted  by  man's  imitation  of  its  cry,  and  sings 


IN  THE  INVERTEBKATA.  61 

in  concert  with  man  (Figuier).  The  common  earwig  ' gathers 
her  young  ones  around  her  and  under  her  in  the  most 
affectionate  manner/  as  a  hen  does.  It  shows  great  anxiety 
or  solicitude  concerning  its  eggs,  brooding  over  them ;  and 
the  young  seek  protection  under  their  mother,  just  as 
chickens  do  (Baird). 

Of  the  Lepidoptera,  butterflies  have  been  tamed  and 
taught  to  come  at  man's  call  (Wood) ;  there  is  a  decided 
observation  of  colours,  as  there  is  among  bees  also,  with  an 
admiration  of  or  preference  for  bright  ones  (Darwin) ;  while 
caterpillars  exhibit  adaptation  of  means  to  an  end — search 
for  suitable  positions  for  safety,  repose,  or  development,  and 
make  ladders  on  glass  (Buckton). 

Among  the  general  mental  characteristics  of  the  Insecta 
as  a  class  are  the  following: — 

1.  Great  variations  of  temper  and  disposition. 

2.  Likes  and  dislikes. 

3.  The  passions,  feelings,  or  emotions  of  fear,  anger,  or 
rage,  love,  sorrow,  impatience,  pleasure,  and  pain. 

4.  Appreciation  of  beauty  in  form,  colour,  and  sound, 
including  musical  tones  and  call  notes. 

5.  Ingenuity   or  fertility  of  resource  in   difficulty,   in- 
cluding the  use  of  tactics  and  stratagems  in  procuring  food. 

6.  Acquisition  and  application  of  knowledge  gained  from 
experience. 

7.  Reception   and   communication   of    information,    in- 
cluding the  exchange  of  ideas. 

8.  Formation  of  associations  for  specific  objects — mutual 
assistance,  society,  or  emigration. 

9.  Obedience  to  orders. 

10.  Making  deviations  from  routine  in  constructive  or 
other  operations. 

In  the  highest  subkingdoin  of  the  Invertebrata,  the  Mol- 
lusca  are  the  most  interesting  class,  containing,  as  it  does, 
the  now  well-known  octopus  —  a  huge  cuttle-fish,  better 
known  as  the  poulpe  of  the  French  and  the  Jcrake  of  the 
Norwegians.  According  to  Lloyd,  of  aquarium  celebrity, 
this  animal  displays  purpose  amounting  to  forethought.  It 
manifests  excitement,  irritation,  and  restlessness  in  confine- 


62  EVOLUTION   OF  MIND 

ment.  It  protects  its  ova  from  danger,  real  or  supposed. 
The  female  guards  the  hatching  ground,  while  the  male  is 
prepared  to  fight  in  defence  of  the  female  and  her  ova. 
When  brooding  the  latter  shows  constant  vigilance  in  the  care 
of  her  eggs,  bestows  unwearied  attention  upon  them,  protect- 
ing them  from  every  threatened  injury,  the  male  in  the 
meantime  looking  savage  and  making  feints  of  attack  upon 
threatening  intruders  or  enemies  (Lee).  There  is  every 
reason  to  suppose  that  in  such  cases  imagination  is  at  work 
in  the  mother  or  father,  or  both,  creating  ideas  of  danger 
where  no  real  danger  exists,  or  exaggerating  the  character 
of  any  danger  that  may  be  threatened.  And  if,  as  is 
probable,  imagination  is  at  work  in  the  parent  octopus — and 
imagination,  moreover,  that  may  be  morbid  in  its  intensity — 
this  mental  quality  or  condition  obviously  exists  in  animals 
very  much  lower  in  the  zoological  scale. 

Professor  Kollman,  of  Munich,  who  studied  its  habits  in 
the  Naples  Aquarium,  describes  the  octopus  as  recognising 
its  keepers,  'actually  manifesting  attachment  for  these 
men;'  as  resenting  the  intrusion  of  new-comers  into  the 
tank  with  'jealous  hate;'  as  showing  courage  and  persist- 
ency in  its  attack  on  prey,  as  well  as  intelligence  in  the 
mode  of  getting  at  its  prey  by  climbing  over  a  barrier 
between  two  tanks;  as  exhibiting  rivalry  in  love,  with  its 
usual  result  in  much  higher  animals — jealousy  and  com- 
bativeness  amounting  even  to  '  ferocity ; '  as  manifesting 
'  energy,  fierceness,  and  determination '  in  the  protection  of 
the  eggs ;  as  expressing  emotional  changes  or  states  by 
play  of  colour  through  nearly  all  the  shades  of  the  rainbow, 
'  so  that  it  is  easy  to  tell,  therefore,  whether  he  is  angry, 
pleased,  frightened,  or  sleepy.'  The  squid  in  the  Brighton 
Aquarium  is  described  as  performing  quadrille  figures — in 
other  words,  as  dancing  (Lee). 

In  the  Gasteropoda,  pairing  is  preceded  by  courtship-,  they 
contract  attachments,  and  there  is  association  of  ideas  (Elain). 
There  is  also  a  perception  of  time,  inasmuch  as  stated  feed- 
ing hours  are  punctually  observed  (Houzeau).  Snails  are 
capable  of  concerted  action. 

Now,  if  we  review  carefully,   and  analyse,  the  various 


IN  THE    ITNVERTEBEATA.  63 

mental  qualities  that  have  just  been  described  as  character- 
istic of  various  subkingdoms,  classes,  and  orders — genera 
and  species — of  the  Invertebrata,  or  lowest  half  of  the  animal 
kingdom,  it  will  be  found  that  we  have  already  before  us 
all  the  elements  or  essentials  of  mind  as  it  occurs  in  man. 
Though  not  developed  in  equal  degree,  we  have  neverthe- 
less the  higher,  as  well  as  the  lower,  constituents  of  mind- 
reason,  intelligence,  thought,  as  well  as  mere  sensation, 
instinct,  and  reflex  action.  And,  moreover,  it  is  evident  that 
intelligence  begins  at  the  very  base  of  the  zoological  scale. 

Such  a  survey  and  analysis  will  show  us  that  the  Inverte- 
brata possess  and  display  the  following  attributes  of  mind  as 
it  occurs  in  man  : — 

1.  General  intelligence.  In  the  ant  especially  it  has  been 
noticed  and  commented  on  by  countless  writers  of  the  most 
diverse  character,  from  the  days  of  Solomon  downward. 
Cicero  very  properly  endowed  the  ant  with  mind  or  reason, 
including  memory ;  and  the  most  modern  and  most  com- 
petent authors,  such  as  Houzeau  and  Belt,  do  the  same.  So 
high  is  their  intelligence  that  ants  have  been  by  many 
authors  regarded  as,  in  many  respects  or  senses,  prototypes 
of  man  (Darwin).  Their  social  or  political  organisations 
represent  semicivilised  societies  of  man,  according  to 
Houzeau,  who  indeed  places  the  ant  nearest  to  man  in 
regard  to  its  social  condition ;  and  Belt,  who  was  struck 
with  the  intelligence  displayed  by  the  foraging  ants  of 
Nicaragua,  remarks  that  '  perhaps,  if  we  could  learn  their 
wonderful  language,  we  should  find  that,  even  in  their 
mental  condition,  they  also  rank  next  to  humanity ' — a 
striking  admission  from  an  otherwise  out-and-out  Dar- 
winian. Houzeau  seems  to  me  quite  justified  in  saying  that 
there  are  in  certain  insects,  such  as  the  ant,  intellectual 
processes  comparable  in  kind  to  those  of  man.  The  under- 
mining by  beetles  of  a  stick  with  a  spitted  toad  stuck  upon 
its  apex,  in  order  that,  by  the  fall  of  the  top-heavy  stick, 
they  might  reach  their  coveted  food,  involves  the  possession 
of  a  high  degree  of  intelligence  or  reason  (Gleditsch,  Kirby 
and  Spence).  Professor  Kollmann  credits  the  octopus  with  a 
high  degree  of  intelligence. 


(J4  EVOLUTION  OF  MIND 

2.  Memory  must  occur  at  a  very  early   stage  in  the 
zoological  scale,  and  there  are  authors  who  ascribe  it  even 
to  plants.     Among  the  Invertebrata  it  has  been  specially 
noted  in  insects,  Crustacea,  and  Arachnida  (Houzeau),  and 
in  Mollusca  (Macalister). 

3.  Volition,  or  will — in  the  form   of  perseverance,  de- 
cision, and  intention  in  prosecution  of  a  definite  purpose, 
end,   aim,   or  object — is  also  displayed  among  the  lowest 
animals,  in  connection  especially  with  the  search  for,  pursuit, 
and  capture  of  food  or  prey. 

4.  Feeling,  emotion,  and  passion  are  exhibited  in  a  con- 
siderable variety  of  ways,  including  the  conjointly  physical 
and  mental  feelings  of  pleasure  and  pain,  as  well  as  the 
emotions  of  fear,  grief,  love,  revenge,  anger,  patience  and 
impatience,  cruelty  or  ferocity,  jealousy,  rivalry  and  compe- 
tition. 

5.  Thought  is  involved  in  many  of  the  operations  of  the 
ant,  bee,  octopus,  and  other  animals.     Kirby  and  Spence 
most  properly  assign  both  reason  and  instinct   to  various 
insects ;  and  there  is  every  ground  for  supposing  that  such 
a  combination  characterises,  in  a  different  degree  only,  the 
lowest  of  the  Invertebrata. 

6.  Love  (sexual),  preceded  by  courtship  and  leading  to 
pairing. 

7.  Affection  or  attachment,  including  friendship  or  com- 
panionship, parental  or  fraternal,  is  exhibited  by  the  octopus, 
hermit  crab,  and  other  animals. 

8.  Choice  is  illustrated  in  the  selection   of  the  proper 
aliment  or  of  a  mate. 

9.  Adaptation  of  means  to  an  end,  including  ingenuity  in 
the  devising  and  use  of  the  proper  means ;  and  the  applica- 
tion of  test  or  experiment. 

10.  Calculation  or  estimation  of  the  strength  or  weakness 
of  material,  and  of  space,  height  or  distance,  and  weight, 
involving  the  practical  application  of  certain  principles  of 
mechanics. 

11.  Appetite  or  desire — for  food,  at  least — exists  appa- 
rently in  the  very  lowest  animals,  based  probably  on  the 
sensation  of  hunger,  which  prompts,  stimulates,  or  excites  to 


IN  THE   INVERTEBEATA.  65 

the  satisfying  of  the  craving  for  food.  The  use  of  means  in 
procuring  coveted  aliment,  based  upon  a  feeling  of  necessity 
for  food,  is  perhaps  the  earliest  indication  of  mind  in  the 
animal  kingdom.  Even  here  appetite  becomes  morbid,  and 
this  morbid  appetite  sometimes  assumes  the  form  of  canni- 
balism. For  instance,  the  male  poulpe  devours  his  own  off- 
spring, fondly  as  he  behaves  in  general  towards  the  eggs 
and  their  mother. 

12.  Formation,  association,  and  communication  of  ideas, 
and  ideas  even  of  a  generalised  kind,  such  as  those  pertaining 
to  danger. 

13.  Imagination,  especially  connected  with  ideas  of  pos- 
sible danger;  apt  to  become — as  are  sensation,  conscious- 
ness, ideation,  emotion,  volition  (in  short,  all  the  faculties  of 
mind,  lower  or  higher) — perverted  or  deranged ;  these  morbid 
states  being  the  foreshadowing  of  the  marked  mental  defect 
or  disorder — insanity  and  idiocy — that  so  frequently  occur 
among  the  higher  of  the  Yertebrata. 

14.  Character  or  disposition  is  sometimes  so  well  marked 
as  to  amount  to  individuality.    Of  individual  disposition  tem- 
per is  sometimes  a  prominent  feature  ;  and  there  are  already 
those  inconsistencies — those  puzzling  contrasts,  antagonisms, 
and  combinations  of  virtues  and  vices — that  are  so  common 
among  the  higher  Vertebrata,  including  man  himself.    Thus 
in  the  male  poulpe  we  have  a  strange  mixture  of  masculine 
virtues  and  vices — the  chivalrous  defence  of  the  female  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  selfish  cannibalism  of  his  own  off- 
spring on  the  other. 

15.  Improvability,  in  so  far  as  they  profit  by  experience. 

16.  Liability  to  error,  including,  however,  the  discovery 
and  rectification  of  mistakes. 

1 7.  Simulation  and  other  forms  of  deception. 

18.  Use  of  a  language,  intelligible  at  least  to  all  indi- 
viduals of  the  same  species;  including  also,  however,  intelligi- 
bility of  human  language,  in  so  far  as  concerns,  for  instance, 
man's  orders ;  along  with  that  of  other  genera  and  species  in 
case  already  given  of  Aphides  and  ants. 

19.  Obedience  to  leaders  or  masters,  including  man — in 
other  words,  recognition  of,  by  submission  to,  the  authority 


66  EVOLUTION    OF   MIND 

of  might,  strength,  or  power.  This  implies,  in  insects  that 
are  governed  by  queens,  respect  for,  worship  or  adoration  of, 
royalty. 

20.  Sociality  or  sociability,  including  the  formation  and 
enjoyment  of  companionships  with  other  individuals,  genera, 
and  species,  involving  domestic  harmony. 

21.  Co-operation,    on    the    principle    that    union    gives 
strength,  implying  an  appreciation  of  the  necessity  for  or 
value  of  mutual  aid. 

22.  Esthetic  taste — the   perception   of  beauty  in   form, 
colour,  and  sound. 

23.  Use  of  natural  tools  and  weapons — for  instance,  in  the 
capture  of  prey.     Thus  the  sea-nettles,  sea-blubbers,  sea- 
jellies,  or  jelly-fish — various  genera  and  species  of  Medu- 
sidce,  belonging  to  the  Coslenterata — benumb  their  prey  or 
their  enemies  by  stinging  with  their  thread  cells. 

24.  Phosphorescence  of  certain  Medusidce  under  irritation 
or  excitement    (Nicholson),  just   as    the   octopus   exhibits 
colour-play,  like  the  chameleon. 

25.  Perception,  if  not   even  the  enjoyment,  of  musical 
cadence   and  rhythm    in   certain   Crustacea    (Darwin)    and 
Insecta. 

26.  Observation,  in  the  form  especially  of  watchfulness 
over  the  movements  of  prey  or  of  enemies,  and  including 
investigation,  examination,  survey,  and   search  for  food  or 
domicile;  implying  also  a  perception  of  external  relations 
or  conditions,  as  well  as  a  recognition  of  each  other,  of 
friends  and  foes,  and  even  of  man ;  and  the  discrimination 
of  differences,  which  involves  a  comparison  of  one  thing  with 
another. 

27.  General  energy  or  vivacity,  even   in   apparently   so 
sluggish  an  animal  as  the  earth-worm  (Jesse).      In    such 
insects  as  the  ant  it  is  very  conspicuous    in   the  form  of 
industry  in  the  various  trades  in  which  they  are  engaged, 
or  in  eagerness  in   carrying   off  prisoners,  prey,  or    other 
booty. 

28.  Physical  sensitiveness  to — 

a.  Weather  changes,  and  all  the  separate  influ- 
ences they  involve. 


IN  THE  INVEKTEBRATA.  67 

b.  Chemical,   electrical,   and   mechanical   stimuli 
or  irritants. 

29.  Distinct  conceptions  of  the  nature  and  nearness  of 
danger,  including  a  very  decided  recognition  of  enemies,  and 
its  results  in  the  various  means  adopted  for  concealment  or 
escape  from  or  deception  of  them. 

30.  Self-control,  involving  firmness  and  coolness  in  emer- 
gency. 

31.  Certain    conservative  vices,   such  as    selfishness,   a 
careful  and  constant  regard  to  their  own  physical  interests, 
with  pugnacity  or  combativeness. 

32.  Certain  virtues,  such  as  courage,  pertinacity,  or  re- 
solute perseverance. 

33.  Judgment  in  the  selection  of  one  of  several  alternative 
modes  of  escaping  from  enemies,  avoiding  danger,  securing 
food. 

34.  Appreciation  of  kindness,  as  illustrated  by  recognition 
of  and  attachment  to  their  masters  or  keepers  by  the  octopus 
(Kollmann),  wasp  (Lubbock),  and  butterflies. 

35.  Actuation  by  adequate  motive. 

If,  now,  we  compare  one  subkingdom  of  the  Invertebrata 
with  another,  as  to  their  psychical  characteristics,  it  may  be 
said  that  there  is  a  sort  of  evolution  or  development  of  mind 
as  we  pass  upwards  from  the  Protozoa  to  the  Mollusca.  There 
are,  however,  many  striking  irregularities  or  exceptions,  or 
what  at  present  appear  to  be  so.  Thus,  while  there  can  be 
no  doubt  as  to  the  superior  development  of  mind  in  the 
Annulosa  as  compared  with  any  of  the  three  subkingdoms 
below  it,  the  true  ants,  which  belong  to  the  class  Insecta  of 
the  Annulosa,  with  their  allies — the  white  ants,  bees,  and 
wasps — occupy  a  much  higher  place,  intellectually  and 
morally,  than  any  of  the  classes  of  the  Mellusca,  than  most 
of  the  Mammalia,  and,  according  to  some  authors,  even  than 
certain  races  of  man  himself.  But  it  is  probable  that  this 
pre-eminence  will  be  diminished  in  proportion  as  we  become 
better  acquainted  with  the  habits  of  other  classes  of  the 
lower  animals. 

A  contrast  between  the  psychical  powers  of  ants,  bees, 
and  wasps,  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  other  families  of  the 


68  MIND  IN  THE  INVEETEBEATA. 

Invertebrata,  on  the  other,  is  of  importance  as  bearing  on  the 
question  of  difference  in  degree  between  the  mental  faculties 
of  man  and  of  other  animals.  Thus  Belt  ranks  the  foraging 
ant  first  in  intelligence  among  the  Annulosa,  then  wasps  and 
bees,  and  then  other  Hymenoptera ;  and  he  points  out  that 
'between  ants  and  the  lower  forms  of  insects  there  is  a 
greater  difference  in  reasoning  powers  than  there  is  between 
them  and  the  lowest  Mammalian.'  Objection  may,  and 
probably  will,  be  taken  to  every  one  of  these  generalisations 
of  Belt's.  Thus  most  students  of  comparative  psychology 
may  prefer  to  bracket  the  Hymenoptera  and  Neuroptera — the 
true  ants  in  the  one,  and  the  scarcely  less  interesting  white 
ants  in  the  other,  as  very  much  on  a  psychical  equality,  and 
occupying  a  higher  platform  than  wasps  or  bees ;  while  the 
difference  in  the  psychical  development  of  man  and  the 
lowest  Mammalian  depends  altogether  on  the  types  of  man 
and  Mammalian  selected  for  the  comparison.  If  we  com- 
pare the  lowest  type  of  lowest  man  with  one  of  the  lowest 
Mammalians  that  has  been  trained  by  man,  or  accustomed 
to  association  with  him,  the  difference  will  probably  be 
altogether  in  favour  of  the  lower  Mammal. 

But,  in  truth,  we  are  not  at  present  in  a  position  to 
compare,  as  to  their  psychical  characters,  the  classes  of  any 
one  subkingdom  of  animals,  the  orders  of  any  one  class,  the 
genera  of  any  one  order,  or  the  species  of  any  one  genus.  We 
cannot  be  said  to  possess  a  proper  knowledge  of  the  psychical 
character  of  the  individuals  constituting  the  various  races  of 
the  single  species  man ;  for,  even  in  him,  it  has  yet  to  be 
determined  in  what  proportions  and  modes  instinct  and 
reason  are  correlated,  how  they  overlap  or  pass  into  each 
other,  what  are  the  distinctives  of  each,  if  there  is  any  real 
demonstrable  distinction  between  them. 


CHAPTER  Vn. 

EVOLUTION    OF    MIND. 

II.  The  Vertebrata. 

AMONG  the  Vertebrata,  as  a  whole,  there  is  a  much  greater 
variety  and  number  of  mental  faculties — the  psychical 
character  is  more  diversified  and  more  developed — than  in 
the  Invertebrata.  There  are  certain  anomalies,  however, 
due,  perhaps,  to  our  present  defective  knowledge,  consti- 
tuting— as  in  the  different  subkingdoms  of  the  Invertebrata 
— apparent  or  real  exceptions  to,  or  irregularities  in,  the 
evolution  of  mind  as  we  ascend  in  the  zoological  scale. 

It  would  be  an  unnecessary  waste  of  space  to  describe  at 
any  length,  or  in  any  detail,  the  psychical  characteristics  of 
the  various  classes,  orders,  or  genera  of  the  Vertebrata.  All 
that  can  or  need  be  here  attempted  is  to  set  forth,  as  much 
as  possible  tabularly  or  concisely,  those  features — intellectual 
or  moral — which  constitute  an  advance  on  the  psychical 
character  of  the  Invertebrata. 

In  the  lowest  class,  then,  of  the  Vertebrata — the  Pisces, 
or  fish — though  there  is  a  wide  range  of  psychical  character, 
there  is  little  if  any  advance  compared  with  certain  classes, 
and  particularly  with  certain  genera  and  species,  of  the 
Invertebrata.  Most  of  their  mental  characteristics  have 
been  met  with  among  the  Invertebrata.  But  many  of  these 
characteristics  are,  among  fishes,  more  highly  developed ;  or 
at  least  appear  to  be  so,  possibly  from  our  better  acquaint- 
ance with  their  habits,  due  to  our  greater  opportunities  of 
studying  them,  as  well  as  from  the  usually  greater  size  and 
conspicuousness  of  the  animals  themselves,  and  the  facility 
with  which  their  behaviour — especially  in  captivity — may 


70  EVOLUTION     OF    MIND 

be  examined  or  observed.    Among  the  more  noteworthy  cha- 
racteristics of  fishes,  then,  are  the  following  :— 

1.  The  formation  of  temporary  alliances — offensive  and 
defensive — involving  a  common  and    specific   object;  with 
action  in  concert. 

2.  Conjugal,  parental,  and  paternal  love. 

3.  The  depressing  passions,  such  as  grief  from  bereave- 
ment, sufiiciently  powerful  sometimes  to  produce  death. 

4.  Testing  the  durability  and  strength  of  material. 

5.  Fidelity  in  the  discharge  of  duty. 

6.  Self-sacrifice  to  the  death. 

7.  Development  of  cunning  or  wariness  with  age. 

8.  Capacity  for  education,  for  being  tamed  and  taught. 

9.  Use  of  mechanical  principles  in  the  overcoming  of  diffi- 
culties or  attainment  of  ends,  as  in  the  case  of  a  cod  that 
used  a  blast  of  air  to  propel  a  shelled  mussel  out  of  a  basin, 
so  that  it  might  use  it  as  food  (Jesse). 

10.  Other  forms  of  adaptation  of  means  to  ends,  as  in 
the  case  of  eels  driving  prey  for  food  by  forming  a  circle 
round  shoals  of  small  fish,  forcing  them  ashore  (Jesse). 

11.  Detection  of  deceit. 

12.  Feelings  of  indignation  or  disgust,  with  their  appro- 
priate expression  ;   expectation,  anticipation  or  hope,  joy, 
anxiety,    confidence   or  fearlessness,  fury,  bloodthirstiness, 
gratitude. 

13.  Knowledge  of  locality,  including  boundaries. 

14.  Realisation  of  consequences. 

15.  Change  or  development  of  character  with  maturity — 
shyness  or  timidity  giving  way  to  courage. 

16.  The  development  of  suspiciousness,  which  is  apt,  as 
in  the  higher  Vertebrata,  to  become  morbid. 

17.  Knowledge  of  and  obedience  to  nmn's  signals. 

18.  Variation  of  lehaviour  to  friends,  strangers,  and  foes 
(Houzeau). 

19.  Use   of  persuasion   or  solicitation,   and   address,  in 
courtship. 

Of  the  psychical  character  of  the  class  Amphibia  (or 
Batrachia)  little  can  at  present  be  said.  So  far  as  we  yet 
know,  there  is  not  only  no  decided  advance  as  compared 


IN   THE  VEKTEBRATA.  71 

with  the  Pisces,  hut  not  the  same  variety  or  range  of  mental 
operations  that  are  to  be  found  among  fish.  The  frog  is 
best  known  to  physiologists  in  its  decapitated  state,  in  con- 
nection with  the  purposive  actions  it  exhibits,  usually  re- 
garded as  reflex,  independent  of  volition,  and  not  involving 
consciousness.  In  so  far  as  these  reflex  actions — which  are 
of  the  highest  interest  in  relation  to  the  basis  of  mind  in 
plants  and  animals — are  treated  of  in  several  other  chapters, 
they  need  not  be  dwelt  upon  here.  The  frog,  in  its  normal 
state,  engages  in  trials  of  strength — that  is,  in  competition — 
and  it  shows  disappointment  in  being  forestalled  in  food- 
capture,  this  disappointment  being  expressed  by  snappish- 
ness,  literal  and  figurative.  The  toad  examines  and  tests  the 
size  of  crevices  in  walls  in  relation  to  the  dimensions  of  its 
own  body  (Wood) — in  other  words,  it  takes  measurements — 
makes  calculations — of  size  and  shape. 

In  the  class  Reptilia  and  order  Chelonia  the  tortoise 
watches  garden  operations  with  interest;  shows  antipathies 
and  predilections  as  to  food;  manifests  discernment  and 
uses  precautions  in  the  avoidance  of  danger ;  examines  the 
means  of  escape  from  confinement ;  is  restless  and  irritable 
in  captivity  (White  and  Jardine). 

In  the  order  Ophidia  the  mental  characteristics  of  snakes 
or  serpents  are  well  known.  Several  of  them  become  affec- 
tionate, docile,  drawing-room  pets — for  instance,  those  of 
Chelsea  described  by  Buckland.  They  were  the  playfellows 
of  the  children  of  the  family ;  knew  individuals  ;  pined,  by 
refusal  of  food,  in  absence  of  their  master,  kissing  and  em- 
bracing him  on  his  return ;  enjoyed  fun,  and  showed  signs 
of  pleasure  and  joy.  Certain  Indian  snakes  are  called 
'  dancing '  snakes  from  their  delight  in,  and  movements  in 
concert  with,  music,  displaying  a  knowledge  of  musical  time, 
as  well  as  of  tone  or  tune.  They  are  enticed  or  lured 
from  their  nests  by  music  in  the  so-called  process  of  snake- 
charming.  Nichols  ascribes  to  certain  Australian  snakes 
the  repetition  and  improvement  of  experiments,  or  trials, 
which  are  at  first  unsuccessful.  In  illustration  of  the  heredi- 
tary transmission  and  instinctive  character  of  certain  mental 
qualities,  White  describes  menace  and  defiance  as  exhibited 


72  EVOLUTION     OF    MIND 

by  young  English  vipers  removed  by  Csesarean  section  from 
the  abdomen  of  their  mothers,  and  this  though  without 
fangs  to  carry  their  threats  into  execution. 

Of  the  Lacertilia  nothing  can  be  said  that  has  not  been 
said  of  animals  much  lower  in  the  zoological  scale.  Thus 
the  iguana  knows  its  master  and  his  dogs,  and  answers  its 
master's  call  (Nichols).  But  this  recognition  of  the  per- 
sonality or  individuality  of  other  animal  genera  or  of  man 
— this  understanding  of  and  reply  to  man's  signals  occur 
even  among  the  Invertebrata. 

In  the  class  Aves,  or  birds,  we  make  another  marked 
advance  as  regards  psychical  development.  A  great  deal  is 
known  of  their  mental  endowments,  especially  in  regard  to 
such  birds  as  the  parrot,  starling,  canary,  and  other  cage 
or  pet  birds,  the  domestic  fowl  and  other  barn-yard  birds, 
with  various  menagerie  and  game  birds.  So  much,  indeed, 
has  been  written  in  illustration  of  the  instinct  or  intelligence 
of  birds,  that  it  must  suffice  here  to  summarise  the  leading 
psychical  characteristics  of  birds  as  a  class.  Their  mental 
aptitudes  or  acquirements,  then,  include — 

1.  Articulate  speech,  including  conversation,  declamation, 
and  the  power  of  appropriate  remark  and  reply. 

2.  Language  intelligible  to  man  even  when  not  articulate, 
including  that  of  sound,  voice,  look,  gesture,  action — all  as 
described  in  the  chapters  on  '  Language : '  by  which  lan- 
guage they  make  known  to  each  other,  or  to   man,  their 
physical  wants  or  needs,  or  their  other  desires. 

3.  Fertility  of  resource,  including  the  trying  of  means  and 
the  selection  of  the  best. 

4.  Improvement  of  dwellings. 

5.  Appreciation  of  domestic  comfort  (Carpenter). 

6.  Capacity  for  a  high  degree  of  education,  especially  in 
song  and  speech. 

7.  Imitativeness  in   a  high   degree,   including   ventrilo- 
quism. 

8.  Humanity  to  and  sympathy  with  each  other,  in  the 
form  of  feeding  or  cheering  their  captive  fellows. 

9.  On  the  other  hand,  malicious  joy  sometimes  in  the 
sufferings  of  others. 


IN  THE  VERTEBEATA.  73 

10.  Foster-parentage,  including  the  voluntary  assumption 
and  faithful  discharge  of  the  duties  of  others. 

1 1 .  Perpetration  of  practical  jokes,  and  enjoyment  of  them. 

12.  Capacity  for  deception,  including  simulation,  strata- 
gem, decoy. 

13.  The  performance  of  services  useful  to  man,  including 
fishing,  fetching  and  carrying. 

14.  Seeking  assistance  from  man,  recognising  his  power, 
and  assuming  his  willingness  to  protect. 

15.  Punishment  of  conjugal  and  other  offences. 

16.  Holding  of  assemblies  for  specific  purposes,  implying 
a  knowledge  both  of  time  and  place. 

17.  Development  of  dramatic  talent,  involving  the  taking 
of  different  parts. 

18.  Laws  and  order  of  battle. 

19.  Judicial  trials  and  other  ceremonials. 

20.  Pride   in  personal  appearance   or  beauty,  in   their 
voice,  in  the  admiration  they  excite. 

21.  Coquetry  in  courtship — in  the  paying  and  accepting 
or  refusing  of  love  addresses. 

22.  Appreciation  of  the  value  of  amusement,  involving 
efforts  by  some  individuals  for  the  amusement  of  others. 

23.  ^Esthetic  taste,  including  the  practice  of  decorative 
art  and  a  knowledge  of  symmetry  and  effect. 

24.  Distinct  ideas   of  danger  and   safety ;    taking  the 
proper  means  of  avoiding  the  one  and  securing  the  other. 

25.  Use  of  intentional  provocation  by  way  of  insult,  chal- 
lenge, revenge,  or  punishment. 

26.  The  use  of  effort,  and,  if  necessary,  of  repeated  effort. 

27.  Making  common  cause  against  common  enemies,  the 
cause  of  one  becoming  the  cause  of  all. 

But,  in  so  large  and  important  a  class  of  animals  as 
birds,  there  is  very  great  variety  in  the  relative  intelligence 
of  different  orders,  genera,  species,  and  individuals.  Houzeau 
arranges  in  the  order  of  their  intelligence — 

1.  The  Psittacidce, 

2.  The  Falconidce,  and 

3.  The  GallinacecB. 

Undoubtedly  the  parrot  is  entitled  to  take  first  rank  not 


74  EVOLUTION    OF    MIND 

only  because  of  its  high  general  intelligence,  but  also  because 
of  its  power  of  speech,  whereby  it  can,  intelligibly  to  man,  ex- 
press its  ideas  and  feelings.  In  this  respect,  indeed,  it  ranks 
next  to  man  himself,  above  the  dog  and  the  anthropoid  apes. 
Tor  similar  reasons  a  prominent  place  must  also  be  given  to 
such  birds  as  the  starling  and  magpie,  belonging  to  the  In- 
sessores  or  Passeres,  the  Sturnidce  and  the  Corvidce.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  are  certain  birds  that  have  long  enjoyed 
an  unenviable  reputation  for  stupidity — to  wit,  the  booby, 
noddy,  goose,  and  guillemot,  all  among  the  Natatores. 
Whether  or  how  far  they,  in  common  with  certain  Mammals, 
deserve  such  a  reputation  is  discussed  in  the  chapters  on 
'  Stupidity '  and  *  Reputation.' 

Of  the  psychical  characteristics  of  the  leading  types  of 
all  the  chief  orders  of  the  Mammalia  much  has  been  written, 
and  there  is  a  superabundance  of  anecdotes  illustrative  of 
the  sagacity  of  such  animals  as  the  dog,  cat,  horse,  elephant, 
and,  to  a  less  extent,  of  certain  apes  and  monkeys.  As  in 
the  case  of  birds,  however,  in  so  large  and  important  a  class 
of  animals,  there  is  a  great  diversity  in  the  degree  of  intelli- 
gence that  characterises  different  orders,  genera,  species,  and 
individuals. 

The  diversity  of  mental  or  moral  endowments  that  charac- 
terises individuals  of  the  same  species  is  specially  discussed 
in  the  chapter  on  'Individuality.'  Here  we  have  mainly 
to  do  with  the  psychical  characters  of  the  larger  divisions 
of  the  animal  kingdom,  of  its  subkingdoms,  classes,  and 
orders,  and,  to  a  minor  extent,  of  genera  and  species. 
Among  the  Mammalia  especially  it  is  necessary  to  select 
genera  and  species  for  illustration,  and  to  regard  them  as 
typical  of  the  orders  and  classes  to  which  they  belong.  It  is 
impossible  in  the  present  work  to  analyse,  for  the  purposes 
of  comparison,  the  psychical  character  of  all  the  important 
animals  belonging  to  the  Mammalia ;  but  it  is  desirable  to 
dwell  shortly  on  the  higher  mental  or  moral  aptitudes  of 
one  species — the  dog,  among  the  Carnivora — and  of  a  group 
of  the  Quadrumana — the  anthropoid  apes. 

The  mental  and  moral  qualities — the  virtues  and  vices,  the 
accomplishments — of  the  dog  are  referred  to  in  almost  every 


IN    THE   VERTEBRATA.  75 

chapter  of  this  book,  and  are  specially  illustrated  in  such 
chapters  as  those  on  '  Education '  and  its  results.  And  there 
are  many  mental  aptitudes  that  it  possesses  in  common  with 
animals  much  lower  in  the  zoological  scale.  To  these  I 
cannot  here  do  more  than  allude.  But  it  is  desirable  to  point 
out  specially  the  possession  by  the  dog,  or  by  certain  dogs, 
of— 

1.  The  religious  sense,  in  so  far  as  it  includes,  or  is  made 
up  of  worship  of  a  superior  being. 

2.  The  moral  sense,  or  conscience,  in  so  far  as  it  involves — 

a.  Honesty. 

b.  Sense  of  duty  or  trust. 

c.  Sense  of  guilt  and  shame. 

d.  Concealment  of  crime. 

3.  Self-sacrifice,  even  to  the  death — for  instance,  in  the 
life-saving  of  other  species  or  genera,  including  man. 

4.  Service  to  man  in — 

a.  Begging,  and  so  supporting  man's  life. 

b.  Watching  or  guarding  life  or  property. 

5.  Understanding  man's  language,  verbal  and  other,  in- 
cluding  the  reading   of  human   character  and  mood,  the 
interpretation  of  facial  expression. 

6.  Use  of  money  and  knowledge  of  the  practice  and  prin- 
ciple of  exchange  or  barter,  of  buying  and  selling. 

7.  Self-control  in  the  restraint  of  natural  and  imperious 
appetites. 

8.  Confederacy  or  co-operation  with  man,  both  in  useful 
service  and  in  crime. 

9.  Sensitiveness    to  insult  or  affront,  neglect,  injustice, 
punishment,  reproof. 

10.  Discovery  of  murders  and  murderers,  lost  or  stolen 
property. 

11.  Ideas   of  time,  tune,   number,   order,  succession  of 
events. 

The  mental  endowments  of  the  anthropomorphous  apes, 
such  as  especially  the  chimpanzee  and  orang,  are  obviously 
correlated  with  their  structure  and  habits ;  and  a  similar  cor- 
relation is  to  be  observed  throughout  the  animal  kingdom. 
Among  the  psychical  characters  of  apes  and  monkeys — the 


76  EVOLUTION    OF    MIND 

Quadrumana  in  general  and  the  anthropoid  apes  in  particular 
— are  to  be  found  the  following : — 

1.  Humanlike   behaviour  at  man's  table,  including   the 
use  of  man's  food  and  drink  and  of  his  table  utensils — viz. 
cutlery,  crockery,  and  glassware. 

2.  Humanlike    conduct    in    human    society,    involving 
manners,  or  politeness,  and  gravity. 

3.  Humanlike  action  in  the   domestic  service  of  man, 
including — 

a.  Fruit-  or  leaf-collecting. 
6.  Furnace  attendance. 

c.  Kitchen  assistance. 

d.  Door-waiting. 

e.  Fetching  and  carrying. 
/.  Nursing  children. 

g.  Message-going. 

4.  Humanlike  use  of  their  arms  and  fingers  also  in — 

a.  Child-carrying. 

&.  Pocket-  and  lock-picking. 

c.  Face-washing  in  young. 

d.  Vermin  capture  in  each  other. 

e.  Driving  horses  in  harness. 

/.  Use  of  hoe  and  other  farm  implements. 
g.  Fisticuffs. 

5.  Humanlike  use  of  tools  and  weapons,  both  those  which 
are  natural,  such  as  stones  or  sticks,  and  those  which  are 
fashioned  by  man,  such  as  ropes  or  chains. 

6.  Humanlike  use  of  shelter  and  bedding,  of  man's  dwell- 
ings, beds  or  bedsteads,  blankets  or  pillows. 

7.  Love  of  finery  in  dress  among  the  females  (Pierquin), 
and  use  of  man's  uniforms  and  dress  by  males. 

8.  Humanlike  employment  of  signs  or  signals  similar  to 
man's,  and  for  similar  purposes,  in  the  form  especially  of 
demonstrative  or  significant  gestures. 

9.  Collection  and  care  of  the  wounded  (Houzeau)  and  dead. 

10.  Humanlike  sports  or  games  for  self-amusement — e.g. 
hunting  and  riding. 

11.  Humanlike  application  of  tact,  patience,  and  perse- 
verance in  attaining  an  end. 


IN  THE  VERTEBRATA.  77 

12.  Humanlike  musical  accomplishments — in  instrumental 
music. 

13.  Humanlike   emotional   language,  such   as  their   war 
cry,  and  the  language  of  abuse,  reprimand,  annoyance,  joy, 
grief. 

14.  Laughter  and  weeping,  kissing,   caresses,   and   em- 
braces, as  expressions  of  emotion. 

15.  Use  of  artificial  intimidation  to  compass  an  end. 

16.  Government  by  chiefs  or  leaders. 

17.  Quarrels  and  reconciliations  with  man  and  with  each 
other. 

18.  The  storage  of  missiles  by  way  of  ammunition. 

19.  Reconnoitring. 

20.  Curiosity. 

It  has  for  ages  been  subject  of  keen  debate  which  of  the 
lower  animals  stands  next  to  man  in  intelligence,  and  there 
cannot  be  said  to  be  anything  like  unanimity  of  opinion  in 
the  conclusion  arrived  at.  On  the  whole,  the  place  next  to 
man,  as  respects  both  intellect  and  morals,  is  usually  as- 
signed to  the  dog — a  rank  that  is  undoubtedly  due  to  his 
intimate  association  with  and  careful  training  by  man  for 
countless  generations ;  for  there  can  be  no  question  as  to  the 
hereditary  transmission,  and  consequent  accumulation,  of 
the  results,  good  or  bad,  of  education  by,  or  mere  imitation 
of,  man. 

Among  the  Mammalia,  however,  the  dog  has  rivals  in 
this  supposed  psychical  pre-eminence  in  the  elephant — be- 
longing to  the  Proboscidia — on  the  one  hand,  and  in  the  an- 
thropoid apes — belonging  to  the  Quadrumana — on  the  other ; 
while  among  the  Aves  the  parrot  stands  forth  as  unrivalled 
in  the  power  of  articulate  speech,  of  conversation  thereby, 
and  of  appropriate  remark  and  reply.  And  even  among  the 
Invertebrata,  as  we  have  already  seen,  there  are  certain 
respects  in  which  some  authors  give  the  place  next  to  man 
to  ants.  Of  them  Wood  says,  « Some  of  their  performances 
are  absolutely  startling,  so  closely  do  they  resemble  the 
customs  of  human  civilisation.' 

In  comparisons  between  different  orders  of  the  Vertebrata 
and  Invertebrata,  as  regards  the  degree  of  intelligence  they 


78  EVOLUTION    OF    MIND 

possess,  they  do  not  all  stand  on  equal  footing,  in  so  far  as 
some  animal  genera,  species,  races,  or  individuals  have  been 
made  the  subject  of  man's  training  for  ages,  while  others  are 
known  to  us  only  in  their  wild  or  natural  state.  In  par- 
ticular the  anthropoid  apes,  and  the  Quadrumana  in  general, 
are  placed  at  this  disadvantage — that  their  training,  where 
training  has  been  at  all  attempted,  has  been  on  a  very 
limited  scale,  utterly  insufficient  to  enable  us  to  judge  of  the 
extent  to  which  their  intellectual  and  moral  powers  may  be 
cultivated.  There  can  be  little  doubt,  I  think,  that  when 
man  bestows  a  careful  training  on  certain  of  the  Quadru- 
mana, especially  on  those  most  closely  resembling  himself 
in  size,  structure,  and  habits — an  education  similar  to  that 
which  he  now  gives  to  sporting  dogs,  race-horses,  working 
elephants,  and  song  birds — the  mental  and  moral  aptitudes 
of  these  apes  and  monkeys  will  be  developed  to  an  extent  of 
which  at  present  we  have  scarcely  an  idea ;  and  when  they 
have  had  the  benefits  of  systematic  and  judicious  education 
for  ages — as  the  dog  has  had — apes  and  monkeys,  in  the 
persons  of  their  higher  representatives,  may  be  expected  to 
take  the  rank  now  so  commonly  conceded  to  the  dog — of 
standing  next  to  man  in  moral  and  intellectual  power,  as 
well  as  in  aspect  and  structure. 

With  Houzeau,  I  regard  the  power  of  talking — the  gift 
of  articulate  speech — as  a  possibility  in  the  Quadrumana — 
one  of  the  possible  results  of  man's  systematic  efforts  in 
their  education.  And  the  possession  of  such  a  power  can 
scarcely  be  overrated  in  regard  to  the  development  of  morals 
and  intelligence.  How  far  the  two  are  correlated  is  seen  in 
the  parrot,  on  the  one  hand,  and  in  the  deaf-mute  man  on 
the  other. 

On  the  other  hand,  many  animals  are  at  a  disadvantage 
quoad  their  physical  organisation,  in  so  far  as  it,  being 
very  different  from  that  of  man,  and  physical  organisation 
being  correlated  with  mental  development  or  the  degree  of 
intelligence,  the  latter  must  necessarily  differ  from  that  of 
man.  But  the  difference  is  less  than  might  a  priori  be 
expected,  in  illustration  whereof  we  have  merely  to  consider 
the  intelligence,  on  the  one  hand,  as  contrasted  with  the 
bodily  organisation  on  the  other,  of  the  ant. 


IN   THE   VEETEBRATA.  79 

In  such  comparisons,  in  short,  we  must  distinguish  be- 
tween high  capacity  and  high  development.  There  fre- 
quently is  undeveloped  or  non-utilised  capacity,  though  there 
cannot  be  development  without  capacity.  Even  in  the  dog, 
and  still  more  in  the  Quadrumana,  there  is  a  moral  potenti- 
ality or  capacity  yet  remaining  to  be  developed  by  man  when 
he  realises  the  importance,  and  the  probable  productiveness, 
of  moral  education  in  the  lower  animals. 

The  mental  scale — the  scale  of  intelligence,  of  moral 
development — is,  so  far  as  our  present  data  enable  us  to 
judge,  not  quite  synonymous  with  the  zoological  scale.  The 
most  intelligent  or  moral  animals  are  not  necessarily  those 
nearest  to  man  in  the  systems  of  classification  commonly 
adopted  by  zoologists.  Neither  as  regards  the  six  sub- 
kingdoms  of  the  animal  kingdom,  nor  the  classes  of  each 
subkingdom,  nor  the  orders  of  each  class,  nor  the  sub- 
divisions of  each  order,  nor  the  genera  of  each  order  or  sub- 
division, nor  the  species  of  each  genus,  can  there  be  said  to 
be  any  unbroken  line  of  continuity  of  psychical  development. 
In  each  subkingdom,  class,  order,  genus,  and  species  we 
find  some  one  or  more  groups  standing  forth  pre-eminently 
distinguished  for  their  mental  endowments,  just  as  occurs 
in  the  races,  breeds,  and  individuals  of  a  species.  The 
ant  among  the  Invertebrata,  the  dog  among  the  Vertebrata, 
appear  to  constitute  remarkable  breaks  in,  or  exceptions 
to,  the  line  of  continuous  or  regular  psychical  evolution. 
But  such  breaks  or  exceptions  may  be  much  more  apparent 
than  real ;  and  the  progress  of  our  knowledge  in  comparative 
psychology  will  probably  render  them  less  and  less  promi- 
nent. 

Even  as  regards  man  himself  it  must  be  borne  in  mind 
that,  as  has  been  shown  in  other  chapters,  there  are  countless 
thousands — many  whole  races — that  are  intellectually  and 
morally  the  inferiors  of  many  well-trained  Mammals,  such  as 
the  chimpanzee,  orang,  dog,  elephant,  or  horse;  or  birds, 
such  as  the  parrot,  starling,  magpie,  jackdaw,  and  various 
crows ;  as  well  as  of  many  animals  much  lower  in  the 
zoological  scale,  and  that  are  not  trained  by  man  at  all,  such 
as  the  ant,  bee,  and  wasp. 
7 


S()  EVOLUTION    OF    MIND 

Taking  them  one  by  one  in  the  descending  series,  the 
orders  of  each  class  of  the  Mammalia  that  manifest  the 
highest  degree  of  intelligence  are  the — 

1.  Bimana — higher  man  only,  however. 

2.  Quadrumana,  especially  the  larger  anthropoid  apes. 

3.  Carnivora,  including  especially  the  dog  and  cat. 

4.  Proboscidia,  especially  the  elephant. 

5.  TTngulata,  especially  the  horse,  mule,  and  ass. 

6.  Rodentia,  especially  the  beaver  and  rat. 

The  other  orders  of  the  (7)  Monotremata,  (8)  Marsupialia, 
(9)  Edentata,  (10)  Sirenia,  (11)  Cetacea,  (12)  Hyracoidea,  (13) 
Cheiroptera,  and  (14)  Insectivora  are  not  distinguished  for 
intelligence,  so  far  as  we  yet  know,  though  some  of  them — 
for  instance,  the  two  last — rank  in  the  mere  zoological  scale 
above  all  animals  save  the  Quadrumana  and  Bimana.  The 
Insectivora  include  moles,  shrew  mice,  and  hedgehogs  ;  while 
the  Cheiroptera  consist  of  the  bats — none  of  them  com- 
parable, as  regards  intelligence,  with  the  dog,  elephant, 
or  other  animals  that  rank  lower  in  the  artificial  systems  of 
the  zoological  classificator. 

Hitherto  we  have  considered  the  psychical  characters  of 
subkingdoms,  classes,  orders,  genera,  and  species.  But 
another — perhaps  more  convenient  and  interesting — mode  of 
studying  comparative  psychology  is  to  take  some  one  mental 
faculty  or  aptitude  and  trace  its  progress  either  downwards 
or  upwards.  For  instance,  we  may  take  up  the  moral  sense 
as  it  is  developed  in  civilised  man,  and  trace  downwards  its 
modifications,  until  it  disappears  in  lower  or  savage  man,  in 
the  Quadrumana,  the  dog,  and  other  animals.  Or  we  can 
take  memory,  volition,  emotion,  thought,  and  trace  their 
dawnings  in  plants  and  the  lowest  animals  up  to  their 
highest  developments  in  cultured  man.  Both  plans  should 
be  followed  by  the  student;  both  have  been  followed  through- 
out this  work,  which  contains  abundance  of  data  for  a  pre- 
liminary study  at  least  of  such  a  kind. 

For  instance,  let  us  take  up  obedience  to  a  human  master's 
orders,  with  all  that  it  implies — such  as  the  understanding 
of  one  or  more  forms  of  man's  language.  We  find  this  oc- 
curing  as  low  down  as  among  bees  ('  Percy  Anecdotes ')  and 


IN  THE  VERTEBRATA.  81 

butterflies  (Wood),  fish — such  as  eels  (Houzeau),  cod,  carp, 
gold-fish — serpents  (Houzeau),  and  the  toad  (Wood).  But 
the  same  performance  or  proceeding — the  obeying  of  an  order 
or  command  of  man — obviously  varies  in  its  character  and  in 
the  nature  and  number  of  mental  powers  involved.  In  order 
to  analyse  such  an  apparently  simple  performance,  we  must 
consider,  on  the  one  hand,  the  variety  of  man's  orders,  and 
on  the  other  the  various  forms  of,  and  motives  for,  obedience. 
In  the  lower  classes  of  cases  man's  order  is  simply  a  call  to 
be  fed,  and  he  may  use  a  whistle  or  a  bell,  or  peculiar  voice- 
sounds  of  his  own.  This  is  common  in  the  case  of  various 
tame  fish,  such  as  those  of  the  Irrawaddy,  described  by  Dr. 
John  Anderson,  of  the  Yunnan  expeditions.  In  the  higher 
class  of  cases  man  gives  verbal  orders,  or  a  mere  look  or 
gesture  suffices,  and  his  dog  undertakes  complex  and  difficult 
commissions,  which  it  executes  with  amazing  promptitude 
and  sagacity.  In  the  lower  class  of  cases  there  is  usually  an 
expectation  to  be  fed,  which  is  associated  sometimes  with  a 
partiality  for  being  caressed ;  while  in  the  higher  class  of 
cases  there  is  not  unfrequently  a  sense  of  duty,  a  pleasure 
in  giving  gratification  to  man  by  the  carrying  out  of  his 
behests,  without  any  immediate,  or  perhaps  even  ulterior, 
hope  of  reward,  except  that  of  a  moral  kind — the  expression 
of  human  approbation. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

ANIMAL     REPUTATION. 

CEETAIN  animals,  like  certain  men,  have  reputations,  based 
upon  or  connected  with  moral  or  intellectual  qualities.  These 
reputations  are,  as  in  man  also,  good  or  bad,  deserved  or 
undeserved,  from  which  the  animals  to  which  they  belong 
either  derive  advantage  or  suffer  seriously.  Reputation  at- 
taches itself  either  to  the  individual,  as  in  the  case  of  many 
dogs,  cats,  horses,  and  other  domestic  animals  or  home 
pets ;  or  to  the  species  or  breed,  as  in  the  cat  or  dog,  sheep, 
lion,  tiger,  camel,  wolf,  pig,  mule,  peacock,  glutton,  ox ;  or 
to  the  genus,  as  in  the  beaver,  hyaena,  toad ;  or  to  the  class, 
family,  or  group,  as  in  serpents,  bees,  wasps,  bears,  eagles, 
doves,  or  pigeons. 

Individual  animals — dogs,  cats, horses,  or  elephants — have 
frequently  a  good  reputation  for  honesty,  docility,  or  other 
virtues,  while  others  have  as  decidedly  a  bad  one  for  theft, 
ferocity,  or  other  vices.  They  may  and  do  possess  a  good  or 
a  bad  '  moral  character '  in  the  same  sense  in  which  such  a 
term  is  applied  to  man.  Such  reputations  are  usually  local 
and  limited,  known  only  to  the  possessor  or  custodian  of 
the  animal  and  his  friends  within  a  limited  circuit  or  dis- 
trict. But  in  other  cases  a  wider  fame  is  acquired,  either — 

1.  By  reason  of  their  own  noteworthy  exploits  or  feats, 
as  in  the  case  of  *  Grey  friars'  Bobby,'  Lady  Davies's  paro- 
quet, the  dog  Minos,  the  gorilla  Pongo,  and  many  other 
performing  animals  ;  or — 

2.  In  connection  with  the  lives  and  doings  of  their  mas- 
ters, who  were  or  are  historical,  literary,  or  other  celebri- 
ties— for  instance,  Sir  Walter  Scott's  hounds,  Byron's  dog 


ANIMAL    REPUTATION.  83 

Boatswain,  Cowper's  hares,  Poe's  and  Dickens's  ravens, 
Caligula's  horse. 

And,  just  as  in  man,  fame  in  such  cases  becomes  the  sub- 
ject of  verse  or  story,  and  is  rendered  permanent  and  classical. 
Certain  animals  acquire  celebrity  ;  their  achievements,  their 
virtues,  their  mere  companionship  it  may  be,  are  recorded 
in  pages  that  mankind  will  not  willingly  let  die. 

Man,  however,  is  only  too  apt  to  form  an  erroneous  idea 
of  animal  character,  and  it  is  on  this  erroneous,  popular, 
frequently  merely  poetical,  ideal  that  he  bases  his  com- 
parisons between  human  and  animal  character,  and  bases  also 
certain  epithets  applied  to  himself.  He  regards  certain  ani- 
mals as  the  incarnation  or  embodiment  of  certain  moral  or 
mental  qualities  that  in  himself  constitute  virtues  or  vices, 
and  hence  he  makes  use  of  the  names  of  the  animals  in 
question,  in  popular  as  well  as  figurative  language,  as 
emblems  of  the  said  virtues  or  vices. 

The  difference  or  divergence  between  the  real  and  the 
ideal  character  varies  considerably.  While  certain  animals, 
like  certain  men,  possess  and  enjoy  a  much  better  reputation 
than  they  deserve,  others  suffer  from  a  much  worse  one  than 
the  reality  exhibits. 

Thus  man  ascribes  to  the  following  animals  the  following 
qualities,  or  be  adopts  them  as  the  emblems,  types,  or  repre- 
sentatives of  the  following  qualities  or  conditions  in  himself 
and  his  personal  relationships  : — 

1.  Lion.  Majesty   of   demeanour,    dig- 

nity of  character,  bravery. 

2.  Tiger.  Ferocity,  bloodthirstiness,  un- 

tamability. 

3.  Hyssna.  Ferocity,  uncontrollable   rest- 

lessness. 

4.  Wolf.  Ferocity,  rapacity. 

5.  Bear.  Ferocity,         bloodthirstiness, 

awkwardness,  roughness. 

6.  Cat.  Spitefulness,  selfishness,  cold 

cruelty,  stealthiness,  trea  • 
chery,  attachment  to  place 
and  not  to  person. 


84 


ANIMAI     KEPUTATION. 


7.  Dogs,  or  certain  breeds 
thereof,  such  as  the 
bull-dog. 


8. 


9. 


'Cat  and  dog'  com- 
panionships. 
Hare. 


Stupidity,  ferocity  blood- 
thirstiness,  pertinacity, 
quarrelsomeness  or  pugna- 
city, servile  fidelity  or  ob- 
sequiousness, want  of  all 
affectionateness. 
Domestic  broils,  connubial 

unhappiness. 

Timidity,  recklessness  or  rash- 
ness. 

Industry,  pugnacity. 
Voracity. 

Stupidity,  stolidity  or  apathy, 
meekness  or  uncomplaining 
patience. 

Stupidity,  perverseness. 
Innocence     or     guilelessness, 
gentleness,    connubial    love 
and  fidelity. 

Nobility  of  mien  and  cha- 
racter, magnanimity,  bold- 
ness. 

Personal  pride  or  vanity. 
Industry,  orderliness,  con- 
structive -skill. 
Irritability  of  temper. 
We  hear  a  great  deal  of  the  lion  as  the  '  king  of  beasts ' 
and  of  its  alleged  bravery.  It  figures  on  the  coat  of  arms  of 
England  as  the  emblem  of  power  and  dignity,  of  all  appa- 
rently that  is  good  and  great.  But  African  travellers  and 
sportsmen  have  exposed  the  pretensions  of  the  lion,  describ- 
ing cowardice  as  its  true  character  rather  than  courage. 
The  Eev.  Professor  Haughton,  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin, 
says  the  lion  is  a  '  pretentious  humbug,  and  owes  his  reputa- 
tion to  his  imposing  mane.  He  will  run  away  like  a  whipped 
cur  under  circumstances  in  which  the  tiger  will  boldly  attack 
and  kill.*  It  is  not,  however,  without  redeeming  qualities. 
Thus  we  are  told  of  the  occasional  attachments  of  the  lion 
or  lioness,  or  their  cubs,  to  man  or  child,  becoming  their  com- 


10.  Beaver. 

11.  Glutton. 

12.  Ox. 


13.  Mule. 

14.  Dove. 


15.  Eagle. 


16.  Peacock. 

17.  Bee. 

18.  Wasp. 


ANIMAL    KEPUTATION.  85 

panions  both  in  sleep  and  play,  expressing  their  fondness  by 
fawning  or  caressing.  They  are  equally  affectionate  to  their 
own  young  (Watson,  '  Percy  Anecdotes '). 

The  ideas  man  generally  associates  with  the  tiger  are 
ferocious  courage,  bloodthirstiness,  untamability ;  but,  ac- 
cording to  Jamrach,  the  well-known  wild  animal  dealer  of 
London,  it  is  sometimes  at  least  timid  or  easily  frightened. 
It  can  be  tamed  if  taken  young,  and  then  forms  harmless 
companionships  with  dogs  or  other  animals.  When  not 
hungry  it  is  '  frightened  at  the  least  noise.'  An  escaped 
tiger  in  the  streets  of  Calcutta,  meeting  a  steam  roller,  be- 
came at  once  so  frightened  that  he  '  turned  short  round,  ran 
back  the  same  way,  and  finding  the  door  of  a  house  open,  ran 
in  ....  sprang  over  a  table  at  which  four  people  were 
sitting  at  breakfast,  out  at  the  back  door,  and  into  the 
kitchen,  where  he  sat  down  in  a  corner,'  from  which  he  was 
alter  a  time  decoyed  by  the  bait  of  a  live  kid. 

Tiger  cubs  are  sometimes  in  India  brought  up  with  other 
young  animals,  especially  the  common  Indian  jackal,  so  as 
not  to  attack  them.  Such  cubs  become  pets  on  shipboard 
and  elsewhere,  forming  close  companionships  with  other 
animals,  such  as  the  dog.  We  are  told  of  a  tamed  tiger, 
that  it  played  with  everyone  on  board  a  certain  ship,  and 
that  it  formed  a  great  friendship  for  and  with  a  dog.  The 
mature,  wild,  powerful  tiger  possesses  and  exhibits  certain 
moral  qualities  that  are  considered  admirable  when  they 
occur  in  man;  for  instance,  it  shows  a  wonderful  magna- 
nimity sometimes  in  the  case  of  an  adversary  that  displays 
pluck,  spirit,  courage,  manifesting  its  respect  or  deference 
not  only  by  sparing  its  life  when  completely  in  its  power, 
but  even  by  contracting  an  attachment  for  it,  taking  it 
under  its  protection,  and,  in  short,  making  a  companion  of 
it.  All  this  has  been  done  by  a  tiger  towards  a  dog  that 
stood  up  to  it  in  the  fight,  to  the  tiger's  obvious  amaze- 
ment, followed  by  its  admiration  (Watson,  Wood). 

The  tamability  and  tractability  of  the  tiger  are  shown  by 
the  fact  that  Indian  fakirs  travel  about  the  country  with 
tame  tigers,  '  which  they  simply  lead  with  a  slight  string, 
and  which  will  allow  themselves  to  be  caressed  by  the  hands 


86  ANIMAL    EEPUTA110N. 

of  children'  (Wood).  The  tiger  shows  considerable  intel- 
ligence or  ingenuity  in  its  mode  of  catching  monkeys, 
giving  the  tree  on  which  they  are  perched  an  unexpected 
shake. 

Next  to  the  tiger  the  common  hycena  bears  the  most 
decided  reputation  in  the  popular  mind  for  ferocity.  In 
captivity  it  is  the  fancied  embodiment  of  unrest;  it  is 
regarded  as  incapable  of  domestication,  as  the  most  unpro- 
mising subject  for  conversion  into  a  pet.  One  of  the  hysenas 
is  called  the  '  laughing  '  hyaena,  but  its  laughter  is  supposed 
to  be  of  the  kind  that  we  call  '  fiendish,'  and  ascribe  to  the 
typical  demons  of  operas.  Nevertheless  the  hyeena  may  be 
trained  to  act  in  place  of  a  watch  dog ;  it  becomes  attached 
to  man,  and  is  sensitive  to  kindness  (Baird).  And  there  are 
few,  if  any,  of  the  higher  animals  of  which  the  same  may 
not  be  said — viz.  that  they  may  be  tamed,  and  will  repay 
man's  efforts  in  their  training  or  tuition.  All  that  is  usually 
required  is  to  begin  their  education  with  the  earliest  stages 
of  their  growth — to  remove  them  from  their  natural  sur- 
roundings while  they  are  yet  quite  young — if  possible,  when 
new-born — and  to  treat  them  with  a  prevailing  kindness — to 
bring  them  up  in  an  atmosphere  of  sympathy. 

We  are  not  accustomed  to  think  of  the  wolf  unless  in 
connection  with  incorrigible  or  untamable  ferocity,  voracity, 
rapacity,  and  bloodthirstiness ;  and  yet  various  authors  de- 
scribe it  as  capable  of  being  tamed,  as  being  affectionate 
and  emotional,  moved  equally  by  joy  and  sorrow.  Frederick 
Cuvier  gives  the  case  of  a  tame  one  that  was  as  tractable  as 
a  dog,  and  as  fond  of  its  master,  drooping  in  his  absence 
and  making  'demonstrations  of  delight'  on  his  return, 
'  planting  its  fore  feet  on  his  shoulders  and  licking  his  face.' 
Such  companionships,  with  all  the  affection  they  embody  or 
illustrate,  must  be  borne  in  mind  in  judging  of  the  probable 
verity  or  authenticity  of  various  current  stories  of  the  up- 
bringing by  Indian  wolves  of  human  children. 

When  we  speak  of  a  man  being  'a  bear,'  we  usually 
mean  that  he  is  all  that  is  gruff  and  rough,  uncouth,  un- 
polished, unfeeling ;  and  we,  moreover,  regard  the  animal 
itself  as  stupid,  callous,  cold,  and  cruel.  In  reality,  however, 


ANIMAL    KEPUTATION.  87 

the  Arctic  or  Polar  bear — that  with  which  we  are  most 
familiar  by  name — is  intelligent,  ingenious,  active,  energetic 
affectionate,  emotional,  playful,  companionable,  and  tract- 
able. It  is  capable  of  generosity,  of  self-devotion  or  self- 
sacrifice  for  or  with  its  young,  and  it  exhibits  caution  in  the 
avoidance  of  snares. 

Bear  whelps  frequently  become  not  only  amusing  but 
harmless  playfellows  of  children.  Of  a  military  bear  pet  we 
are  told  that  it  played  at  'hide  and  seek*  with  the  band 
boys,  wrestled  or  boxed  with  the  men,  standing  on  its  hind 
legs,  and  all  in  perfect  good  temper  ('  Chambers's  Journal'). 
There  is,  in  fact,  a  rarity  of  bad  humour,  of  any  loss  of 
temper,  in  bear  whelps  brought  up  with  children.  Even 
teasing  by  the  latter  is  borne  with  wonderful  equanimity 
(Cassell).  In  some  cases  a  decided  affection  is  contracted 
for  some  child  companion,  whom  the  bear  cub  may  even 
fee^l,  protect,  and  caress  ('Percy  Anecdotes').  They  may 
be  trained  to  sit  at  table  and  to  behave  becomingly,  so  far 
as  their  ungainly  structure  for  such  a  purpose  will  admit. 
Tamed  bears  or  bear  whelps  also  mess  amicably  with  cats, 
dogs,  and  birds  as  well  as  with  children  (Cassell).  The 
solicitude  of  the  mother  bear  for  her  cubs  is  notorious  to 
Arctic  travellers.  She  is  even  demonstrative  in  her  affec- 
tion— for  instance,  when  they  are  wounded  (Houzeau). 

The  bear  displays,  moreover,  conspicuous  sagacity  and 
ingenuity  in  its  mode  of  killing  the  walrus.  It  is  no  peculi- 
arity of  the  Arctic  bear  that  it  is  sometimes  unhappy,  sullen, 
angry,  revengeful ;  but  it  is  under  the  influence  of  man's 
persecution  of  or  cruelty  to  their  cubs,  rather  than  them- 
selves, that  such  moral  or  mental  qualities  or  conditions  are 
developed. 

The  poor  cat  has  probably  been  as  much  maligned  and 
misunderstood  or  misappreciated  as  it  has  been  petted.  We 
are  told  that  its  apparent  affection  is  only  a '  cupboard  love;' 
and  this  cupboard  love  is  popularly  supposed  sufficient  to 
account  for  its  propensity  to  pilfer  eatables  and  drinkables. 
It  is  said  to  be  attached  to  places,  not  to  persons,  to  stick  to 
some  given  house  even  when  a  master  or  mistress  who 
has  lavished  kindness  upon  it  has  had  occasion  to  change 


88  ANIMAL    REPUTATION. 

quarters.  Absurd  stories  are  told  as  to  its  sucking  children's 
breath. 

We  speak  of  a  scandal-propagating,  unamiable,  sour  old 
maid  as  being  '  spiteful  as  a  cat,'  and  we  associate  the  so 
frequently  beautiful  animal  with  ideas  of  stealthiness  and 
treachery,  of  the  enjoyment  of  the  torture  of  its  captives,  of 
calculating  cruelty.  And  yet  Wood  tells  us,  'Instead  of 
being  a  greedy,  selfish  animal  ....  it  is  really  a  very  un- 
selfish and  generous  one,  capable  of  great  self- sacrifice.'  Jesse 
mentions  one  that  fed  a  jay  twice  a  day  with  mice.  Another 
cat  always  brought  and  laid  at  her  master's  feet  the  mice 
she  had  caught  before  she  would  eat  them ;  she  made  use  of 
them  as  food  only  when  they  were  given  back  to  her  by  her 
master.  The  attachment  of  the  cat  is  frequently  as  great  to 
person  as  to  place,  such  attachment,  however,  depending 
usually  on  how  far  she  is  understood,  sympathised  with,  and 
kindly  treated.  Cases  have  been  given  of  cats  following 
their  masters  from  house  to  house,  place  to  place,  accom- 
panying them,  on  visits  to  other  people's  residences  as 
unconcernedly  as  the  dog  (Wood,  Broderip).  They  may  be 
trained  even  to  guard  and  defend  like  a  dog. 

In  the  East  '  dog '  is  a  term  of  profoundest  contempt 
used  by  man  towards  his  brother  man ;  and  in  many  parts 
of  the  East,  where  the  poor  animal  is  either  utterly  neglected 
or  cruelly  ill-used,  or  both,  it  possesses  many  evil  qualities 
that  are  not  developed  in  happier  circumstances.  In  our 
own  country  we  use  the  term  *  dogged '  in  a  contemptuous 
sense,  usually  as  synonymous  with  a  stupid,  hopeless  obsti- 
nacy. But  such  self-willedness  or  perversity  is  no  more  a 
feature  of  the  natural  character  of  the  dog  than  it  is  that  of 
the  ass,  mule,  or  pig.  When  it  really  exists,  it  is  usually  the 
fruit  of  man's  training  or  usage  (Walsh). 

In  the  bull-dog,  for  instance,  there  is  a  remarkable  te- 
nacity or  pertinacity  of  purpose,  this  purpose  being  the 
*  holding  on '  through  thick  and  thin,  even  to  the  death,  to 
an  enemy.  Blaine  tells  us  that  'no  sufferings  short  of  ex- 
tinction can  make  him  forego  his  purpose,'  whether  it  be  a 
right  or  a  wrong  one.  But  this  is  a  direct  result  of  man's 
training ;  and  what  we  call,  with  singular  impropriety,  its 


ANIMAL    REPUTATION.  89 

'  brutal  nature  '  '  is  mainly  attributable  to  the  savage  human 
beings  with  whom  he  associates,'  says  Walsh,  and  no  doubt 
quite  correctly.  This  sort  of  obstinacy  and  ferocity  is  con- 
sidered among  the  animal's  greatest  virtues. 

Among  dogs  there  is  none  in  such  evil  odour  as  the 
bull-dog,  which  is  popularly  supposed  to  be  'utterly  in- 
capable of  anything  but  ferocity  and  combat ' — an  incarna- 
tion of  stupidity,  of  want  of  natural  affection,  of  quarrel- 
someness or  irritability,  of  a  bloodthirstiness  rivalling  that 
of  the  lion,  tiger,  hysena,  or  wolf.  But  Webb,  Jesse,  Walsh, 
Blaine,  and  other  writers  show  how  unfounded  is  such 
a  belief.  Under  favourable  circumstances  he  becomes,  or 
may  become,  intelligent,  faithful,  companionable,  good-tem- 
pered ;  he  may  even  be  taught  tricks  or  feats  like  those 
performed  by  the  poodle  or  other  dogs ;  he  may  show  attach- 
ment to  his  master.  Jesse  even  describes  one  that  died  of 
grief  on  being  transferred  to  another  owner.  He  has  saved 
human  life,  for  instance,  by  carrying  a  rope  ashore  from  a 
shipwrecked  vessel,  though  he  is  not  a  water  dog,  and  might 
be  excused  for  refusing  to  take  to  water  at  all  even  when 
smooth  and  quiet.  He  is,  moreover,  an  'excellent  watch, 
and  as  a  guard  unequalled,'  according  to  Walsh.  Fearless- 
ness and  fortitude  are  also  good  qualities  that  cannot  be 
denied  to  him. 

As  in  man  himself,  there  may  be  a  singular  co-existence 
of  good  and  bad  qualities.  Thus  we  are  told  of  a  bull-dog 
so  ferocious  as  to  bite  its  own  mistress,  that  yet  tended 
gently  a  wounded  kitten  deserted  by  its  own  mother  (Wood). 

When  we  speak  of  one  man  '  dogging '  another's  steps, 
we  do  not  refer  generally,  or  at  all,  to  mere  faithful  and 
close  following  by  a  person  who  would  prove  a  defender 
or  protector  in  case  of  need,  but  to  some  spy  or  assassin — 
some  follower  whose  purpose  is  nefarious  or  dishonourable. 
Nor,  when  we  say  that  one  man  '  hounds '  on  another  to 
this  or  that  action,  do  we  allude  to  the  legitimate  barking 
of  or  chasing  at  the  sheep  by  the  collie,  or  at  or  of  the  hare 
by  the  harrier.  We  use  the  term,  as  we  do  the  others,  in  a 
bad  sense.  The  object  of  the  '  hounding '  in  man  is  usually 
revenge  or  crime. 


90  ANIMAL    KEPUTATION. 

Again,  we  borrow  the  term  '  snappishness  '  from  the 
dog — not  referring  to  the  mere  snapping  at  imaginary  or 
real  insect  tormentors,  or  at  man  interfering  with  its 
rightful  property — a  bone — or  deliberately  provoking  it  by 
blows,  kicks,  or  otherwise.  When  we  talk  of  a  man  or 
his  temper  being  '  snappish,'  we  refer  to  a  kind  of  irrita- 
bility— shortness  of  temper — that  is  much  commoner  in  man 
than  in  the  dog,  and  which,  when  it  occurs  in  the  latter 
animal,  is  usually  at  least  produced  by  man's  own  provoca- 
tion or  bad  usage. 

One  of  the  commonest  and  most  serious,  and  at  the 
same  time  most  undeserved,  of  the  evil  epithets  or  repu- 
tations attached  to  the  dog  in  this  country  is  that  of 
'  madness,'  by  which  is  popularly  meant  rabies.  The  well- 
known  proverb,  '  Give  a  dog  a  bad  name,  and  you  may  as 
well  hang  him/  probably  arose  in  connection  with  its  sup- 
posed liability  to  rabies.  Whether  this  be  the  case  or  not 
the  proverb  is  specially  applicable  to,  and  true  of,  these  our 
own  times ;  for  while  I  am  writing  these  pages  the  news- 
papers tell  me  that  no  less  than  1,200  dogs  have  been  captured 
within  a  few  days  in  the  streets  of  Glasgow,  and  destroyed 
wholesale  by  drowning,  while  the  survivors  are  ordered  to  be 
muzzled,  all  because  three  fatal  cases  of  supposed  human 
hydrophobia  have  recently  occurred  in  the  infirmary  of  that 
city.  As  the  real  character  of  this  reputed  '  madness '  is 
discussed  in  another  chapter,  I  must  not,  however,  further 
allude  to  it  here. 

When  a  husband  and  wife  fall  out,  when  domestic  un- 
happiness  pervades  a  dwelling  in  which  connubial  bliss 
should  tincture  all  things,  when  mutual  bickerings  and  re- 
criminations are  substituted  for  mutual  affection  and  respect, 
when  angry  words  lead  to  angry  blows  instead  of  the  loving, 
and  cherishing,  and  obeying  that  ought  to  characterise  the 
relationship  of  human  marriage — we  spea.k  of  such  ill-matched 
and  ill-starred  spouses  as  leading  '  a  cat  and  dog  life.'  And 
it  is  quite  possible  that  cats  and  dogs,  under  certain  un- 
favourable circumstances,  may  and  do  have  their  quarrels. 
They  may  both  figuratively  and  literally  be  *  set  by  the  ears.' 
It  would  be  singular  if  they  were  not.  But  here,  again,  their 


ANIMAL    EEPUTATION.  91 

quarrels  and  fights,  when  they  do  occur,  are  too  frequently 
the  direct  result  of  man's  intervention,  of  his  cruel  propensity 
for  what  he  calls  c  sport,'  though  cases  occasionally  occur 
also  in  which  a  practical — perhaps  malicious — animal  joker, 
such  as  the  parrot,  produces  and  enjoys  the  same  effect. 
When  left  alone,  cats  and  dogs,  so  far  from  quarrelling  with 
each  other,  contract  the  closest  companionships  or  friend- 
ships, characterised  by  the  strongest  reciprocal  affection. 

Take  a  single  suggestive  case  from  f  Nature.'  As  puppy 
and  kitten  a  mastiff  and  a  cat  had  contracted  so  strong  a 
liking  for  each  other  that  the  latter  voluntarily  took  up  her 
residence  in  his  kennel.  She  '  never  seemed  happy '  when 
away  from  him.  *  She  ate  her  breakfast  out  of  the  dog's  bowl, 
and  slept  in  his  kennel  with  his  paws  around  her.  She  used 
to  catch  mice  and  young  rats  and  carry  them  to  him,  and 
seemed  quite  pleased  when  he  accepted  friendship's  offering.' 
She  duly  made  his  kennel  her  accouchement  chamber  and 
nursery,  while  he  became  nurse  to  her  progeny  in  her  fre- 
quent absences.  '  Cato,'  we  are  told,  was  '  quite  proud  of 
his  charge.'  Her  only  surviving  kitten  in  course  of  time 
became  as  fond  of  the  dog  as  its  mother  had  been.  It,  too, 
*  brings  mice,  young  rats,  and  rabbits,  and  lays  them '  before 
him,  looking  'beseechingly  till  he  takes  them.  She  con- 
stantly plays  with  him,  and  gets  on  her  hind  legs  to  look 
fondly  into  his  face,  while  he  puts  his  paws  round  her,  as 
he  used  to  do  to  her  mother.' 

Here  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  suggestive  features 
is  the  apparent  hereditary  transmission  of  fondness  for  an 
animal  that  is  so  generally  looked  upon  by  man  as  the 
cat's  natural  enemy.  Dogs  and  cats,  especially  when  both 
are  young,  are  indeed  common  playfellows,  as  I  have  myself 
seen  over  and  over  again  in  many  a  household.  The 
alleged  mutual  antipathy,  and  consequent  quarrelling,  of  the 
dog  and  cat  are,  therefore,  one  of  man's  many  fables,  fictions, 
or  popular  delusions  concerning  other  animals.  Many  in- 
stances of  sympathy  between  the  dog  and  the  cat,  of  good 
offices  performed  by  the  one  towards  the  other — most  fre- 
quently by  the  dog  towards  the  cat — and  of  the  effects 
produced  on  the  whole  character  of  the  one  by  the  other 


92  ANIMAL    REPUTATION. 

when  companionship  hos  been  long  and  intimate,  are  cited 
by  Wood  and  other  authors. 

The  timidity  of  the  common  hare  is  so  proverbial  that  it 
derives  its  specific  name,  timidus,  from  this  mental  pecu- 
liarity. Nevertheless  it  sometimes  shows  fearlessness  of 
dogs,  and  even  commits  rash  assaults  upon  them,  or  romps 
with  dog  companions  (Cassell).  It  also  becomes  a  house  pet, 
showing  great  attachment  to  a  master,  as  in  the  well-known 
case  of  the  poet  Cowper.  Shakespeare  is  not  the  only  person 
who  has  spoken  of  certain  kinds  of  men  as  being  '  hare- 
brained,' and  to  this  day  we  constantly  hear  of  this  or  that 
person  being  as  '  mad  as  a  March  hare.'  There  is  no  good 
ground,  in  the  cerebral  or  psychical  organisation  or  character 
of  the  hare,  for  a  comparison  so  damaging  to  the  good  name 
of  the  poor  animal.  The  terms  are  apparently  applied  to 
people  possessed  of  the  most  fanciful  and  impracticable  pro- 
jects; but  why  such  vagaries  should  be  connected  with  the 
name  of  so  useful  and  harmless  a  creature  I  confess  myself 
utterly  at  a  loss  to  understand  or  explain. 

Unlike  the  hare,  the  beaver  is  one  of  the  animals  whose 
reputation  is  better  than  its  real  character  warrants.  It  is 
popularly  supposed  to  be  intelligent  and  industrious  in  the 
highest  degree ;  but  in  the  first  place  Gillmore  describes  it 
as  lazy,  and  we  know  that  its  constructive  '  instinct '  is  sin- 
gularly fallible. 

The  wary  wolverene,  or  glutton,  is  believed  to  be  so  vora- 
cious that '  gluttony '  has  become  a  by-word  for — a  synonym 
of — inordinate  appetite — greed  to  the  extent  of  gorging — in 
man  or  child ;  but  there  is  no  reason  for  supposing  that  the 
wolverene  is  more  voracious  than  many  other  animals  that 
are  closely  hunted  by  man,  that  are  often  pressed  with  hunger, 
and  that  are  compelled  by  the  exigencies  of  their  existence 
to  gorge  themselves  with  food  when  fitting  opportunity 
occurs.  Savage  man  himself  does  the  same,  and  both  in  his 
case  and  in  that  of  the  wolverene  there  is,  or  may  be,  pro- 
per excuse.  But  the  gluttony  of  civilised  man,  or  of  his 
pampered,  over-indulged  child,  is  something  very  different. 
Here  again  the  epithet  borrowed  from  the  name  of  one  of 
the  lower  animals  is  perverted  in  its  use  or  application,  and 


ANIMAL    EEPUTATION.  93 

what  is  simply  in  the  one  the  necessary  satiation  of  appetite 
with  suitable  food  is  in  the  other  unnecessary  and  dan- 
gerous repletion  with  substances,  solid  and  fluid,  that  too 
frequently  are  not  entitled  to  the  appellation  of  '  food ' 
at  all. 

The  useful  oxen,  our  domestic  cattle,  do  not  get  "credit  for 
other  psychical  qualities  than  those  that  are  virtually  of  a 
negative  or  passive  kind  ;  but  what  they  may  become  under 
proper  training  and  kindly  usage  is,  or  was  at  one  time, 
illustrated  by  the  condition  and  aptitudes  of  Hottentot  oxen. 
Whatever  they  may  be  now,  they  used  to  be  trained  to  fight 
for  and  to  pay  respect  to  man,  to  guard  and  defend  his 
flocks,  so  as  to  be  employed  instead  of  watch  dogs;  to  under- 
stand his  signals  and  obey  his  commands;  to  distinguish,  as 
well  as  the  different  inhabitants  of  a  kraal,  friend  or  familiar 
from  foe  or  stranger,  and  to  attack  the  latter  (Watson). 

When  we  speak  of  a  man  being  *  stubborn  as  a  mule,'  we 
little  think  that  this  stubbornness,  when  it  exists  in  the 
animal,  is  usually  the  result,  direct  or  indirect,  of  man's 
injudicious  or  bad  usage.  Nor  do  we  give  the  animal  credit 
for  the  sagacity  or  shrewdness,  the  vanity  or  pride,  which  it 
possesses.  Nevertheless  it  is  humiliating  to  man's  self- 
esteem  to  consider  how  conspicuously  the  mule  shows  its 
superior  sagacity  in  certain  circumstances.  Many  a  traveller 
in  Alpine  countries,  if  he  has  not  himself  been  both  stupid 
and  stubborn,  has  been  thankful  to  trust  himself  implicitly 
to  his  mule  and  its  guidance  in  way-finding  or  way- 
keeping  on  unknown  or  dangerous  ground.  Few  animals 
are  more  intelligent  than  the  mule  in  the  means  whereby, 
in  Central  America,  they  avoid  being  lassoed  by  their  masters 
(Wood).  It  is  one  of  man's  delusions  regarding  this 
useful  and  frequently  beautiful  animal  that,  like  its  relative 
the  ass,  it  is  of  an  humble  or  meek,  all-suffering  spirit. 
In  point  of  fact,  however,  the  mule  is  '  a  very  proud  animal 
and  fond  of  good  society,'  and  in  Central  America  it 
shows  both  in  its  partiality  to  the  horse  and  aversion  to 
the  ass  (Wood).  Like  many  men,  it  apparently  despises  its 
'  poor  relation '  the  donkey,  while  it  glories  in  its  kinship 
with  the  horse.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  said  that  the  vanity 


94  ANIMAL    EEPUTATION. 

of  the  donkey  as  regards  its  relationship  to  the  mule  leads  it 
to  dangerous  obtrusiveness  on  its  proud  relative  (Wood). 

The  rat  is  universally  denounced  as  mere  vermin,  to  be 
ruthlessly  exterminated  by  all  possible  means — terriers, 
ferrets,  or  poison.  It  is  known,  moreover,  as  an  incorrigible 
thief  and  hoarder  of  stolen  goods.  But  no  credit  is  given  to 
it  for  its  undoubted  good  qualities.  Rats,  however,  show  a 
'  thoughtful  tenderness  for  each  other  that  may  well  put 
Christians  to  the  blush,'  says  the  '  Christian  Union/  an 
American  newspaper,  that  vouches  for  the  truth  of  the 
following  incident,  quoted  in  the  *  Animal  World:' — A  young 
rat  had  fallen  into  a  pail  of  pig- food.  Six  older  ones  held 
a  consultation  so  earnest  in  its  character  as  to  lead  them 
to  ignore  the  presence  of  human  onlookers.  They  decided 
on  an  ingenious  scheme  of  rescue,  and  successfully  carried 
it  out.  Entwining  their  legs  together,  they  formed  a  chain 
hanging  downwards  over  the  edge  of  the  pail.  The  fore- 
most or  downmost  rat  grasped  the  drowning — and,  as  it 
subsequently  proved,  drowned — young  one  in  its  fore  paws, 
and  both  rescued  and  rescuer  were  then  drawn  up  and  out. 
When  found  to  be  dead,  the  rescuers  gazed  at  their  young 
comrade  in  '  mute  despair  ....  wiped  the  tears  from 
their  eyes  with  their  fore  paws,  and  departed  without  making 
any  attempts  to  resuscitate  it.' 

There  is  apparently  no  good  ground  for  belief  in  the 
alleged  malignity  of  reptiles  (Baird).  That  the  '  venomous- 
ness,'  figurative  or  literal,  the  torpor,  mental  and  bodily, 
the  non-intelligence  or  stupidity,  or  the  absence  of  affec- 
tion, of  snakes  (or  serpents)  do  not  hold  good  in  the  case  of 
many  of  them  is  proved  by  the  account  given  by  Buck! and 
of  the  tame  snakes  of  Chelsea,  that  some  years  ago  created 
such  a  sensation  in  the  London  newspapers.  He  pointed 
out  that,  so  far  from  being  dangerous,  the  animals  in  ques- 
tion were  amiable,  innocent,  amusing  house  pets ;  and  he 
properly  drew  attention  to  this  illustration  of  what  kindness 
can  do  in  the  domestication  of  the  most  unlikely  animals. 
Like  so  many  other  animals,  they  act  on  the  offensive  only 
when  frightened,  threatened,  or  provoked ;  and  if  and  when 
they  are  dangerous  to  man,  he  himself  is  too  frequently  to 
blame  for  the  injury  inflicted. 


ANIMAL    REPUTATION.  95 

Even  more  loathed  than  the  serpent,  an  animal  that 
inspires  in  most  men  a  feeling  of  intense  disgust  is  the  toad. 
Nevertheless,  Jesse  assures  us,  '  everything  about  a  toad  is 
worthy  of  our  attention— all  that  he  is  and  all  that  he  does.' 
It  affords  aid  to  its  maimed  brother ;  and  if  it  does  not  wear 
outwardly,  as  is  alleged  by  fancy  and  fiction,  '  a  jewel  in  its 
head,'  it  shows  certain  excellencies  of  moral  or  intellectual 
character  ('  Percy  Anecdotes '). 

The  hedgehog  is  usually  regarded  as  a  mere  animate  ball, 
a  thing  for  boys  to  pelt;  but  it  is  tamable,  becoming 
quite  domestic  (Baird)  ;  acquires  a  familiarity  with  persons, 
distinguishes  them  by  their  voices  or  otherwise,  and  answers 
their  calls  (Jardine). 

The  dove,  with  its  olive  branch,  is  regarded  as  the  em- 
blem of  peace  and  innocence.  The  philosopher  is  made  to 

say- 
In  parental  care  and  nuptial  love 
I  know  my  duties  from  the  dove. 

We  liken  the  course  of  *  true  love '  to  the  '  billing  and  cooing ' 
of  the  pigeon,  and  popular  imagination  finds  it  almost  im- 
possible to  conceive  anything  unamiable  as  attachable  to  the 
dove  or  pigeon.  Nevertheless  the  facts  are  these : — White 
tell?  us  of  the  fieriness  or  ferocity  of  certain  young  ones — 
of  their  general  wildness  of  demeanour  being  such  as  to 
frighten  their  foster-mothers  and  prevent  their  being  fed, 
and  so  of  their  dying  of  starvation.  Other  authors  describe 
the  male  dove  as  a  regular  libertine,  instead  of  a  pattern 
of  marital  or  conjugal  affection  and  constancy. 

Watson  gives  the  case  of  a  female  deserting  her  mate ; 
of  the  return  of  the  faithless  partner,  who  was  refused  re- 
admission  to  marital  favour  ;  of  the  use  of  her  arts  and 
efforts  to  regain  the  lost  regard,  to  revive  the  conjugal  af- 
fection of  the  justly  offended  spouse;  of  her  importunity, 
ending  in  her  at  last  forcing  her  way  into  the  nest,  her  old 
home ;  of  her  death,  probably  from  disappointment  at  the 
failure  of  all  her  attempts  at  restitution  to  her  old  place  in 
her  husband's  affections  ;  and  then,  and  not  till  then,  of  the 
remarriage  or  re-mating  of  the  widower.  He  also  cites  an 
instance  of  a  female  deserting  a  mate  forced  011  her,  and 
his  young,  to  return  to  her  '  first  love.'  So  that  the  character 
8 


96  ANIMAL    EEPUTATION. 

of  the  dove  is  neither  so  good  as  represented  by  poets  nor 
so  bad  as  depicted  by  certain  other — perhaps  cynical — 
writers. 

The  eagle  figures  as  the  emblem  of  all  that  is  majestic 
on  the  national  coats  of  arms  of  America,  Russia,  Austria, 
Prussia,  and  other  nations ;  it  was  an  emblem  of  dignity 
also  among  the  Romans ;  and  no  doubt  it  has  frequently, 
in  confinement,  a  certain  dignity  of  mere  look ;  but,  like 
the  lion,  it  is  far  from  being  the  brave,  bold  bird  it  is  gene- 
rally supposed  to  be.  Franklin  himself  points  out  that  the 
real  characteristics  of  the  American  eagle  are  cowardice,  dis- 
honesty, injustice,  sharping  and  robbery,  or  other  forms  of 
bad  morals.  Other  authors  regard  eagles,  like  ravens,  as 
'  types  of  all  that  is  violent,  dark,  and  cunning.'  But  here 
again  their  moral  character  is  not  altogether  bad,  for  we 
are  told  that  eagles  are  really  paragons  of  « as  sincere  con- 
jugal love  [or, fidelity]  as  [is  to  be  found]  among  mono- 
gamous mankind '  (Wood). 

The  beautiful  peacock  is  the  emblem  of  man's  consequen- 
tially and  self-complacency,  vanity  or  pride,  using  these 
terms  in  their  contemptuous  or  worst  sense ;  but  we  have 
no  proof  that  its  peculiar  strut,  or  the  spread  of  its  gor- 
geous tail,  arises  from  what  Darwin  calls  '  conscious  vanity.' 
That  it  does  so  arise  is  merely  maw's  interpretation  of  the 
phenomenon ;  and  man  is  particularly  liable  to  error  in  the 
construction  he  puts  upon  the  motives  of  action  in  other 
animals,  or  even  in  other  individuals  than  himself.  As  is 
pointed  out  in  the  chapter  on  *  Courtship  and  Marriage,'  the 
peacock  is  one  of  many  male  birds  that  possess  personal 
charms,  that  have  a  knowledge  of  this  possession  and  its 
advantage  in  the  eyes  of  the  female,  and  that  display  these 
charms  to  the  greatest  advantage.  But  all  this  does  not 
involve  pride  or  vanity  in  the  offensive  sense  in  which  man 
so  frequently  applies  these  terms — for  instance,  to  frivolous 
woman. 

Few  animals  have  been  so  highly  esteemed  by  man  as 
the  '  little  busy  lee '  of  Dr.  Watts.  The  supposed  perfection 
of  its  '  instinct '  we  never  dream  of  connecting  with  ideas 
of  possible  error,  stupidity,  confusion,  temper,  or  idleness. 


ANIMAL  REPUTATION.  97 

Nevertheless  it  is  pointed  out  in  other  chapters  how  it 
commits  mistakes  and  exhibits  stupidity — for  instance,  in 
constructive  skill  and  in  way-finding  to  its  own  hive — and 
we  might  record  against  it  many  other  defects  of  character, 
mental  or  moral.  Huber  tells  us  that  bees  are  directed  by 
their  queen,  and  if  she  is  lost,  they  return  to  their  hive 
incapable  of  any  kind  of  reorganisation.  They  are,  more- 
over, liable  to  mental  confusion,  to  panic,  to  what  has  been 
variously  described  as  a  sort  of  temporary  epidemic  excite- 
ment, delirium,  or  mania,  in  or  prior  to  swarming.  Agitation, 
disorder,  aimless  movements,  general  tumult,  occur ;  there  is 
forgetfulness  of  their  ordinary  work  or  duty ;  nurses  become 
inattentive ;  the  guard  deserts,  and  even  assaults  or  insults 
the  queen.  Again  Lubbock  has  quite  recently  shown  that 
bees  are  characterised  by  a  certain  kind  or  degree  of  stu- 
pidity, a  lack  of  ready  observation,  even  when  their  own  per- 
sonal interests  are  concerned — in  regard,  for  instance,  to  the 
discovery  of  honey. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  wasp  suffers  from  an  evil  reputa- 
tion it  does  not  deserve.  Homer,  in  his  '  Iliad/  book  xxi., 
addresses  the 

"Wasp !  front  of  impudence,  and  past  all  bounds  audacious ; 

and  from  the  earliest  ages  to  the  present  day  it  has  been 
regarded  as  the  type  of  everything  in  the  human  character 
that  is  acrid,  ill-natured,  spiteful,  revengeful.  Hence  we 
speak  of  the  '  waspishness  '  of  an  irritable,  unamiable  man, 
whose  society  is  to  be  avoided.  But,  so  far  from  being  a 
sort  of  insect  Ishmael,  ready  with  its  sting  on  all  occasions, 
for  the  benefit  or  injury  of  friend  and  foe  alike,  the  wasp 
is  one  of  those  apparently  unpromising  animals  that  will 
respond  to  and  repay  man's  kindness  and  attention  by 
becoming  both  tractable  and  affectionate. 

Sir  John  Lubbock  has  shown  us  that  the  wasp,  or  certain 
wasps,  can  be  tamed  by  a  little  trouble  on  man's  part.  No 
credit,  moreover,  is  popularly  given  to  it  for  its  skill  and  per- 
severance as  a  paper-maker  and  nest-builder,  for  its  division 
of  labour  and  system  of  promotion  (Ormerod),  for  the  energy 
and  adroitness  with  which  it  hunts  its  prey,  for  its  desperate 


98  ANIMAL  REPUTATION. 

courage,  or  for  its  tenderness  in  nursing.  Its  domestic  life  is 
characterised  by  order  and  quiet,  by  cleanliness,  by  care  for 
the  young.  There  is  an  atmosphere  of  good  understanding 
in  the  community ;  its  members  co-operate  harmoniously 
for  common  ends ;  there  is  a  rarity  of  quarrels  among 
themselves.  They  are  models  of  industry — for  instance,  the 
sand  wasp  (Baird).  They  display  considerable  artistic  fancy 
(Figuier)  ;  their  nest  is  a  sort  of  town,  displaying  symmetry 
or  regularity  in  its  dwellings,  streets,  and  walls  (Eeaumur). 

To  say  that  the  wasp  is  faultless — that  it  is  free  from  vices 
while  abounding  in  virtues — would  be  to  say  what  is  not 
true — would  be  to  assert  that  it  is  a  singular  exception  to 
the  general  rule  that  the  character  of  all  animals  is  made  up 
of  various  combinations  of  both  vices  and  virtues.  The  wasp 
has  warlike  propensities,  and  its  pugnacity  is  sometimes  a 
marked  feature.  It  is,  or  may  appear  to  be,  excitable, 
irritable,  even  savage ;  it  gets  out  of  temper  or  into  bad 
temper.  But  it  is  fair  to  the  insect's  true  character  to  say, 
in  this  as  in  so  many  other  cases,  that  this  bad  temper  or 
other  similar  vices,  where  they  occur,  are  frequently  in  great 
measure  or  altogether  due  to  the  provocation  to  which  the 
wasp  is  subjected— occasionally  or  habitually — from  man. 

We  have  seen,  then,  that  in  a  great  many  cases  man  is 
really  to  blame  ;  he  is  morally  responsible  for  the  evil  repu- 
tation which  he  attaches  to  the  lower  animals.  If  only  he 
give  them  fair  play,  they  will  show  themselves  in  their  real, 
not  in  their  fictitious,  characters.  It  is  proper,  however,  on 
man's  behalf,  here  shortly  to  advert  to  the  fact  that  he  occa- 
sionally, though  not  often,  suffers  in  reputation  from  the 
misdeeds  of  other  animals.  Many  a  poor  servant  girl,  for 
instance,  has  been  suspected  of,  charged  with,  or  punished 
for  a  theft  of  coin,  jewellery,  plate,  or  cutlery  that  was 
really  perpetrated  by  some  roguish  rat  or  pet  bird.  In  the 
chapter  on  '  Crime  and  Criminality '  it  is  shown  how  many 
animals  are  arrant  thieves;  how  they  hoard  their  stolen 
goods,  and  how  ingeniously  and  successfully  they  conceal 
the  evidences  and  results  of  their  crime.  And  there  is  this 
parallelism  between  the  responsibility  of  man  and  that  of  the 
lower  animals  for  the  undeserved  evil  reputation  fixed  upon 


ANIMAL  EEPUTATION.  99 

the  other,  that  in  neither  case,  generally  speaking,  is  there 
any  desire  or  intention  of  committing  an  injustice.  Man 
and  other  animals  sin  in  ignorance  of  the  results  of  their  sin. 
The  rat  or  the  magpie  does  not  usually  steal  in  order  that 
some  poor  girl  may  be  blamed  and  punished  for  the  sup- 
posed theft  by  her  of  a  spoon  or  ring.  I  say  iisually,  for 
parrots  and  other  birds  play  jokes  of  such  a  kind  for  the 
purpose  sometimes  of  annoying  their  human  foes,  quite  well 
knowing  that  they  are  annoying  them,  and  enjoying  the 
evidences  or  fruits  of  their  annoyance.  In  the  same  way 
man,  when  he  habitually  neglects  or  maltreats  a  donkey,  is 
for  the  most  part  ignorant  that  the  stubbornness  with  which 
he  fancies  he  is  dealing — if  present  at  all — is  the  natural 
fruit  of  his  own  behaviour.  He  sins  in  thoughtlessness, 
perhaps  from  incapacity  to  understand  or  appreciate  the 
connection  between  cause  and  effect  in  the  determination  of 
character  in  subject  animals  by  the  circumstances  in  which 
they  are  placed. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

ALLEGED   PSYCHICAL    DIFFEKENCES   BETWEEN    MAN   AND  OTHER 
ANIMALS. 

IT  is,  and  has  for  ages  been,  popularly  believed  that  there  exist 
certain  fundamental  psychical  or  other  differences  between 
man,  on  the  one  hand,  and  all  other  or  lower  animals  on 
the  other.  There  are,  it  is  alleged,  certain  mental  or  other 
attributes  which  are  distinctively  or  peculiarly  human,  abso- 
lutely confined  to  and  characteristic  of  man,  and  which  con- 
stitute therefore  fixed  and  demonstrable  points  of  differentia- 
tion between  him  and  other  animals.  Some  of  these  sup- 
posed exclusive  prerogatives  of  man  are  physical;  but  the 
physical  are  so  blended  with  the  mental  that  in  such  a 
review  of  them  as  the  present  it  is  desirable  not  to  separate 
them.  The  differences  in  question  are,  however,  so  numerous 
that  it  is  equally  impossible  and  unnecessary  to  analyse  or 
discuss  all  of  them  here.  And,  moreover,  some  are  of  such 
a  character  that  it  could  serve  no  good  end  to  do  more  than 
refer  to  them  en  passant  as  being  mere  verbal  distinctions — 
mere  ingenious  refinements  of  men  determined  by  any  means 
to  prevent  the  occupation  by  other  animals  of  the  same 
moral  or  mental  platform  as  man.  It  is  proper,  nevertheless, 
to  give  specimens  of  the  different  kinds  of  objections  that 
have  been  raised — mainly  by  the  prejudice  of  man— against 
granting  to  the  lower  animals  a  moral  or  mental  status  at 
all  approaching  that  of  the  vain  lords  of  the  creation.  Let 
us,  then,  enumerate  the  leading  differences  that  have  been 
supposed  to  distinguish  man  from  what  he  contemptuously 
calls  *  the  brute  ; '  and  in  doing  so  let  us  determine  for  our- 
selves how  far  the  objections  taken  are  real  or  substantial. 


ALLEGED  DIFFERENCES.  101 

The  chief  alleged  distinctive  psychical  or  other  attributes  of 
man  as  compared  with  lower  animals  are,  or  include,  the 
following: — 

1.  It  is  alleged  at  the  very  outset  that  the  possession  of 
a  soul  or  spirit  places  man  on  a  platform  by  himself.     I  have 
already  explained  (in  the  Introduction)  my  reasons  for  not 
discussing,  in  the  present  volume,  the  subject  of  soul  and 
its  immortality  in  the  lower  animals.     In  so  far  as  soul  is  to 
be  held  to  be  that  part  of  man's  nature  which  is  destined 
to  exist  in  a  future,  any  discussion  of  the  question  whether 
such  an  attribute  pertains  to  other  animals  must  be  purely 
speculative,  and  unsuitable  therefore  in  a  work  which  pro- 
fesses to  deal  only  with  the  facts  of  observation,  and  with 
scientific  or  logical  inferences  from  these   facts.     In   man 
himself  the  existence  of  soul,  with  the  probability  or  cer- 
tainty of  its  immortality,  is  a  matter  of  faith  or  belief,  not 
of  scientific  demonstration.   By  no  kind  of  scientific  evidence 
can  it  be  proved  that  soul  exists,  whether  in  man  or  other 
animals.     And  as  regards  belief  and  hope,  there  are,  and 
have  been,  many  eminent  authors,  including  divines  or  theo- 
logians themselves,  who  have  expressed  their  opinion  that 
certain  other  animals,  such  as  dogs,  may  have  souls,  which 
may  further  be  immortal,  just  as   is   man's.     No   man   is, 
therefore  in  a  position  to  assert  absolutely  that  the  presence 
or   absence   of  a   soul   characterises   either   man    or   other 
animals.     Nor   should   it   be   forgotten  that,   according  to 
many  writers,   the   word   or  term    '  soul '    is   regarded   as 
synonymous  with  'mind;'  in  which  case  there  can   be  no 
question  as  to  its  possession  by  the  higher  animals ;  while 
the  term  'soul'  has  also  been  applied — in  figurative  senses 
no  doubt — even  to  plants.     It  obviously  lies  with  those  who 
assert  dogmatically  that  all  men  have  immortal  souls,  while 
no  animals  possess  them,  to  reconcile  with  such  a  conviction 
the  provable  fact  that  many  animals  are  superior  to  many 
men,  not  only  in  general  intelligence,  but  as  regards  also 
moral  sense  and  religious  feeling. 

2.  The   subject   of  immortality  —  the   knowledge   of  or 
belief  in  a  future  destiny  or   state   of  existence — is   inse- 
parably connected  with  the  question  of  soul.     Now,  in  the 


102  DIFFEKENCES  BETWEEN  MAN 

first  place,  it  is  desirable  to  bear  in  mind  how  differently  the 
matter  of  immortality  is  viewed  at  the  present  day  by  men 
of  the  highest  scientific  culture.  We  are  told  in  one  ot 
the  most  recent  expressions  l  of  scientific  opinion  regard- 
ing human  religion — and  especially  regarding  the  peculiar 
tenets  of  the  Christian  religion — that  some  scientific  men, 
'  professing  themselves  unable  to  conceive  such  an  existence 
as  a  disembodied  spirit  ....  are  forced  to  conclude,  like 
Priestley,  that  the  soul  in  its  nature  is  not  immortal  .... 
believing,  with  Priestley  and  others,  that  immortality  is  a 
fresh  and  miraculous  gift  conferred  upon  man  at  the  Eesur- 
rection;  another  [section  of  scientific  men]  unable  to 
conceive  the  possibility  of  a  miracle  in  the  case  of  each 
individual,  denying  a  future  state  altogether  ;  while  a  third 
section  maintains  that  there  is  no  use  in  discussing  the 
subject,  because  man  after  death  has  passed  beyond  the 
sphere  of  human  enquiry.'  Nor  can  it  be  pretended  that  a 
knowledge  of  a  future  existence,  that  anticipations  of  a  future 
state,  that  ideas  of  immortality,  are  common  to  all  men. 
There  are,  indeed,  no  means  of  either  proving  or  disproving 
that  such  hopes  or  beliefs  exist,  on  the  one  hand,  in  all  men, 
or  do  not  exist,  on  the  other  hand,  in  other  animals  or 
certain  of  them.  It  is,  at  all  events,  absurd  to  assert  that 
other  animals  live  only  in  and  for  the  present.  The  whole 
phenomena  of  foresight,  hope,  expectation,  contradict  em- 
phatically any  such  averment.  The  statement  that  they 
live  in  and  for  the  present  only  may  indeed  be  made  much 
more  really  or  truly  of  many  men,  perhaps  the  majority. 
This  subject  is  also  touched  upon  in  the  chapters  on  (  The 
Eeligious  Sentiment  in  Lower  Man  and  the  Higher 
Animals.' 

3.  Sense  of  religion,  religious  belief  and  ceremonies,  ideas 
of  God,  the  worship  of  a  deity.  Even  among  men  of  the 
highest  scientific  culture  there  are  those  who  '  have  main- 
tained that  we  have  no  evidence  of  any  such  Being'2  as  the 
God  of  the  Christian ;  while  in  other  chapters  it  is  shown 
that  whole  races  of  lower  man  have  no  ideas  of  any 
sort  of  divinity,  no  kind  of  worship,  no  religious  feeling. 
1  '  Unseen  Universe,'  pp.  34-5.  2  '  Unseen  Universe,'  p.  35. 


AND   OTHER  ANIMALS.  103 

On  the  other  hand,  it  will  be  seen  that  certain  animals 
may,  with  perfect  propriety,  be  said  to  have  a  kind  or  degree 
of  religious  feeling,  including  the  recognition  and  worship 
of  a  god  in  the  person  of  man,  or  of  idols  in  the  form  of 
fetiches. 

4.  Moral  sense,  including  ideas  of  good  and  evil,  the  sen- 
timent of  justice,  conscience,  sense  of  decency.  But,  as  has 
been  shown  by  Biichner,  Houzeau,  and  others,  notions  of 
good  and  evil  do  not  exist  among  all  men.  In  other  chap- 
ters it  is  pointed  out  that  ideas  of  justice  or  right,  that 
feelings  of  decency  or  shame,  that  that  combination  or 
essence  of  moral  qualities  known  as  conscience,  are  as  cer- 
tainly present  in  certain  animals  as  they  appear  to  be  absent 
in  countless  numbers  of  men. 

o.  Self -consciousness.  The  distinction  drawn  by  meta- 
physicians between  consciousness  and  self-consciousness  is 
too  refined  for  practical  purposes.  Whatever  self-conscious- 
ness may  be,  if  it  can  be  proved  to  be  absent  in  the  lower 
animals  the  probability  is  that,  like  so  many  presumably  pe- 
culiar human  attributes,  it  is  equally  wanting  in  whole  races 
of  man.  According  to  Max  Miiller,  the  assertion  as  to  self- 
consciousness  is  *  either  right  or  wrong  according  to  the  de- 
finition of  the  word; '  and  the  same  may  be  remarked  of  almost 
every  one  of  the  alleged  moral  or  mental  distinctions  between 
man  and  other  animals.  Miss  Cobbe  and  other  authors  hold 
that  self-consciousness  is  necessarily  associated  with  moral 
responsibility  and  abstract  ideas,  both  of  which  are  attributes 
of  certain  of  the  higher  animals.  Professor  Huxley,  too,  ap- 
parently denies  that  self-consciousnesss  is  a  good  distinction, 
or  a  distinction  at  all.  '  By  perceiving  objects  as  external, 
they  [the  lower  animals]  practically  recognise  the  differ- 
ence between  the  self  and  the  not  self.'  The  supposed  dis- 
tinction of  self-consciousness  was  first  pointed  out  by  the 
schoolmen  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Bayle,  however,  argues 
against  it  (Wardrop).  Among  its  leading  modern  upholders 
was  the  late  Professor  Goodsir,  of  Edinburgh,  but  his  defi- 
nition of  ordinary  consciousness  as  instinctive  in  animals  and 
rational  in  man  is  based  on  an  utterly  untenable  distinction. 

6.  Potentiality.     Much  is  made — a  great  deal  too  much 


104  DIFFEEENCES   BETWEEN  MAN 

— of  -what  is  called  the  moral  or  mental  potentiality  of  man. 
It  is  alleged  that,  however  abject  and  degraded  man  is,  he 
nevertheless  has  certain  latent  powers  or  capacities  not  pos- 
sessed by  other  animals.  In  other  words,  it  is  held,  though 
not  in  the  same  sense  with  Burns,  that 

A  man's  a  man  for  a'  that — 

notwithstanding,  that  is,  all  the  efforts  which  science  has 
made,  or  may  make,  to  show  that  he  is  virtually  but  an 
animal,  and  frequently  in  every  sense  a  brute.  Equally 
truthfully,  however,  may  it  be  asserted  that  the  potentiality 
of  man  must  have  frequently  very  narrow  limits,  while  of 
that  of  other  animals  we  have  as  yet  but  glimmerings.  We 
know  what  is  the  actuality  of  mental  and  moral  acquirement 
or  progress  in  the  savage ;  but  it  is  as  difficult  to  admit — 
it  would  be  as  inconsistent  with  fact  to  believe — that  his 
moral  or  mental  potentiality  is  that,  or  equal  to  that,  of  the 
civilised  European,  as  it  is  to  admit  or  believe  that  the  moral 
or  mental  potentiality  of  the  lower  animals  is  on  a  par  with 
that  of  civilised  man.  Intelligence  is  limited  alike  in  the 
child,  the  civilised  adult,  the  savage,  the  human  idiot,  and  the 
animal,  though  the  limit  is  not  the  same  in  all  these  cases. 
The  possible  range  of  mental  or  intellectual  power  has  yet  to 
be  determined  even  in  man,  and  man  has  also  to  confess 
his  ignorance  of  either  the  latent  psychical  possibilities  or 
potentialities  of  other  animals,  or  of  their  mental  acquisi- 
tions in  relation  to  these  potentialities.  This  subject  of 
potentiality,  of  possible  latent  powers  capable  of  development 
under  favourable  conditions,  is  nearly  synonymous  with — 

7.  The  capacity  tor  progress  or  improvement.  As  regards 
man,  we  know  that  in  whole  races  of  savages  progress  is 
either  non-apparent  or  to  a  most  limited  extent;  while 
many  nations  have  remained  stationary  for  ages,  and  others 
have  not  only  retrograded,  but  perished.  The  Australian 
aborigines,  accoi'ding  to  Madame  Bingham,  are  incapable  of 
civilisation.  'The  missionaries  have  long  given  up  any 
attempt  to  civilise  them.'  The  East  African  negro  '  for 
thousands  of  years  has  made  no  progress,  although  he  has 
had  sufficient  contact  with  cultivated  peoples,'  according  to 


AND   OTHER  ANIMALS.  105 

Captain  Burton.  Here,  again,  is  what  Baker  thinks  of  the 
Baris  of  Tropical  Africa  : — '  How  is  it  possible  to  improve 
such  abject  animals  ?  They  are  not  worth  the  trouble,  and 
they  are  only  fit  for  slaves,  to  which  position  their  race 
appears  to  have  been  condemned.'  A  correspondent  of 
'  Nature,'  writing  quite  recently  from  Samoa  regarding  the 
present  Polynesians,  points  out  that,  as  a  rule,  savage  races, 
unaided,  do  not  better  their  condition — make  no  progress. 
'  From  personal  observation  of  savage  and  semi-  savage  life, 
I  feel  almost  certain  that  a  real  savage  is  utterly  incapable 
of  in  any  way  raising  himself.  He  lacks  the  sensibility 
which  must  serve  as  a  fulcrum  for  the  lever  which  is  to  lift 
him.'  China,  Egypt,  Assyria,  Greece,  Koine,  Palestine, 
Mexico,  Peru,  afford  illustrations  of  the  fact  that,  even  in 
the  most  highly  favoured  nations,  steady,  progressive  im- 
provement is  not  the  rule.  So  far,  indeed,  from  there  having 
been  progress  in  the  human  race  as  a  whole,  there  are  thou- 
sands of  worthy  people  who  believe  that  man  has  degene- 
rated— in  morals,  if  not  also  in  mind — from  the  Paradisiacal 
type  of  perfection  illustrated  by  Adam  and  Eve  before  the 
Fall. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  whole  phenomena  of  education 
show  the  wonderful  extent  to  which  both  the  moral  and 
mental  powers  of  the  lower  animals  may  be  cultivated  or 
developed. 

8.  The  love  of  knowledge  for  its  own  sake — the  wish  to 
know  for  the  sake  of  knowing.  This  exists  only  in  a  limited 
number  of  men.  There  are  whole  races  without  any  desire 
for  knowledge  even  for  selfish  ends ;  and  the  little  know- 
ledge they  possess — the  fruit,  mainly,  of  stern  necessity — is 
of  the  most  limited  kind.  The  crass  stupidity  or  non- 
intelligence  of  certain  savage  races  has  been  dwelt  upon  by 
travellers.  Thus  the  Brazilian  Botokudo  *  is  not  interested 
in  anything  uncommon.  Nothing  excites  his  curiosity  or 
attention'  (Biichner).  Sir  John  Eoss  described  the  Eskimo 
as  '  without  any  principle  or  rational  emotion.'  The  ignor- 
ance of  primitive  peoples,  even  about  themselves,  is  some- 
times astounding.  According  to  Houzeau,  negroes  cannot 
tell  their  own  age,  and  the  same  has  been  said  of  the  Apache 


106  DIFFERENCES  BETWEEN  MAN 

Indians  (Biichner).  'In  the  Australian  aborigines  the  capa- 
bility of  considering  and  inferring  appears  to  be  very  imper- 
fectly developed.  The  reasons  which  the  colonists  use  in 
order  to  convince  or  persuade  them  are  mostly  such  as  are 
employed  with  children  and  half-imbeciles '  (Biichner). 
Whether,  or  how  far,  a  love  of  knowledge  'for  its  own 
sake*  exists  in  the  lower  animals  cannot  be  determined; 
but  their  thirst  for  knowledge,  their  possession  of  know- 
ledge, and  their  intelligent  application  of  acquired  know- 
ledge are  all  indubitable. 

9.  The  faculty  of  generalisation  or  abstraction,  the  power 
of  forming,  or  the  possession  of,  general  or  abstract  ideas. 
But  there  are  many  abstract  ideas  that  do  not  exist  in 
primitive  man — for  instance,  those  concerning  good  and  evil, 
right  and  wrong,  justice  and  injustice,  or  deity.  Nor  does 
he  appear  to  possess  the  faculty  of  generalising  at  all,  or  he 
possesses  it  to  a  most  limited  extent.  According  to  the 
high  authority  of  Bishop  Colenso,  there  is  little  or  no  idea 
of  the  abstract  among  the  Kaffirs.  '  The  more  common  of 
our  abstract  ideas — such  as  spirit,  soul,  hope,  and  fear — 
appear  to  be  absolutely  wanting.  But  experience  shows 
that,  in  this  respect,  other  negro  tongues  are  not  more 
richly  provided  by  nature.'  The  language  of  certain  savage 
races  is  so  rudimentary  that  it  contains  no  words  to  'ex- 
press general  ideas.'  « The  lowest  among  the  Oceanians  and 
Africans  ....  are  entirely  destitute  of  general  ideas  or  ab- 
stract notions.'  The  language  of  the  Australian  blacks  con- 
tains no  word  to  '  express  a  general  idea  '  or  abstraction  ;  it 
has  no  word,  for  instance,  for  the  notion  tree.  The  lan- 
guage of  many  savage  peoples  is  'quite  destitute  of  ex- 
pressions for  general  notions  or  properties.  .  .  .  They  have 
a  special  word  for  each  kind  of  colour,  for  each  kind  of 
tree,  but  no  general  designation '  (Biichner).  The  Veddas 
of  Ceylon  have  no  word  to  express  colour  (Hartshorne) . 
According  to  Dr.  Ireland,  there  are  human  idiots  with 
no  general  or  abstract  ideas ;  and  the  same  may  be  said 
of  certain  stages  of  infancy  and  childhood.  It  is  indeed 
instructive  to  compare  the  faculty  of  generalisation  in 
the  human  infant  with  the  similar  power,  on  the  one 


AND   OTHER  ANIMALS.  107 

hand,  in  the  civilised  adult  and  the  savage,  and,  on  the 
other,  in  Mammals  such  as  the  horse  or  dog,  or  in  birds 
(Houzeau).  Miss  Cobbe,  the  late  Rev.  Sydney  Smith,  and 
other  authors  who  have  closely  studied  the  higher  mental 
faculties  of  the  lower  animals,  find  themselves  necessitated 
to  concede  to  them  the  power  of  forming  abstract  ideas. 
The  late  Sir  Benjamin  Brodie  thought  it  impossible  to  deny 
to  the  lower  animals  the  power  of  abstraction.  Leroy  points 
out  that  the  wolf  has  abstract,  though  frequently  morbid, 
ideas  of  peril.  As  in  so  many  other  cases,  much,  or  every- 
thing, depends,  in  determining  whether  this  or  that  moral 
or  mental  attribute  is  peculiar  to  man  or  common  to  other 
animals,  on  the  different  possible  definitions  or  nomenclature 
of  such  attribute — the  terms  by  which  it  is  popularly  known. 

10.  The  supposed  absence  in  other  animals  of  certain  of 
the  higher  moral  or  mental  faculties,  including — 

Reflection.  Wonder.  Hope. 

Veneration.  Causality. 

But  it  is  abundantly  shown  in  other  parts  of  this  work 
that  all  of  these  faculties  are  possessed  by  certain  of  the 
lower  animals.  It  has,  in  fact,  to  be  proved,  by  those  who 
carp  and  sneer  at  what  they  call  the  mere  '  instinct '  of  ani- 
mals, that  any  one  of  the  higher,  as  well  as  of  the  lower, 
faculties — moral  or  mental — of  man  is  altogether  absent  in 
them,  or  certain  of  them. 

11.  Actuation  by  principle  or  motive.      The   lower  ani- 
mals are,  it  is  alleged,  actuated  only  by  physical  desires  or 
wants.      But   of  how  many  men   is   this   far   more   true? 
Many  savage  races  are  actuated  only  by  present  and  per- 
sonal interests,  as  exhibited,  for  instance,  in  food  procuring 
(Houzeau).      Their1  common  motives  to  action  are  fear  of 
punishment  or  the  hope  of  the  acquisition   of  advantage. 
In  other  words,  their  behaviour  is  determined,  as  is  that  of 
children,  and  in  many  cases,  no  doubt,  the  lower  animals,  by 
the  principle  or  practice  of  reward  and  punishment.     They 
are  characterised  by  the  simplicity  and   fewness   of  their 
wants,  which  relate  mainly  to  the  physical  sustenance  of 
the  individual  and  the  perpetuation  of  the  species. 

12.  The  discovery,  establishment,  and  observance  of  law. 


108  DIFFERENCES   BETWEEN   MAN 

But  a  special  chapter  shows  that,  on  the  one  hand,  many 
races  of  mankind  neither  possess  nor  obey  laws,  while  cer- 
tain other  animals  do  both. 

13.  Yerbal  language,  or  speech.  But,  as  is  fully  shown  in 
the  chapters  on  « Language/  it  is  not  absolutely  absent  in 
other  animals;  nor  is  it  always  present  in  man,  whether 
civilised  or  savage,  healthy  or  diseased.  Max  Miiller  makes 
a  very  artificial  and  futile  distinction  of  '  rational '  language 
as  limited  to  man;  and  his  controversial  opponent,  Pro- 
fessor Whitney,  is  no  more  felicitous  in  his  description  of 
animal  language  as  contrasted  with  man's  '  instinctive ' 
language.  This  is  simply  the  old  begging  of  the  question 
as  between  instinct  and  reason — the  prejudiced  or  ignorant 
ascription  to  instinct  in  other  animals  of  what  is  unhesitat- 
ingly assigned  to  reason  in  man.  It  seems  almost  impos- 
sible for  men,  even  of  the  highest  culture,  to  regard  man  as 
what  he  really  is,  zoologically,  morally,  and  intellectually — 
himself  an  animal. 

14.  The  understanding  of  language  is  peculiar  to  man, 
says  Mill,  who  has  made  so  many  other  mistakes  in   his 
Mental   Philosophy.      His    assertion   is    sadly  contradicted 
by  a  whole  special  chapter  of  facts  showing  that  certain 
animals  not  only  understand  each  other's  language  but  that 
of  man. 

15.  Printed  or  written  language.      There   are  no   such 
things  as  printed  or  written  records  among  the  lower  ani- 
mals, nor  are  there   in   numerous  races  of  mankind;    but 
a  power  of  rudimentary  writing  or  drawing  is  possessed  by 
certain  animals,  which  can  draw  lines  or  figures,  or  make 
other  marks,  on  the  ground  with  their  feet — for  instance,  the 
elephant  (Houzeau) .    Certain  '  learned '  elephants  are  trained 
to  tell  the  age  of  visitors  by  making  a  certain  number  of 
simple  footmarks — undoubtedly  a  rudimentary  kind  of  nota- 
tion (Houzeau).     Certain  other  learned  animals  have  been 
taught  to  construct  words  by  the  arrangement  of  letters. 
This  points  to  a  kind  of — 

16.  Orthography  or  spelling.      Various  learned  poodles, 
and  other  dogs,  have  been  trained  to   place   together,  in 
various  combinations,  the  printed  or  painted  letters  of  man's 


AND   OTHER  ANIMALS.  109 

alphabet,  so  as  to  form  man's  wards.  We  have  here  a  know- 
ledge and  use  of  printed  letters  far  beyond  what  is  attained 
or  attainable  by  whole  races  of  man — with  all  his  'poten- 
tialities.' 

17.  Tradition.     It  has  yet  to  be  proved  that  all   men 
possess   tradition  in  some  form — oral,  written,  or  printed. 
Mere  oral  tradition  occurs  not  only  among  certain  savages, 
but  frequently  even  among  civilised  or  semi-civilised  peoples. 
But  there  may  be — nay,  there  is — a  kind  of  tradition  that 
exists  without  words,  writing  or  printing,  transmitted,  as  in 
man,  from  old  to  young,  from   one  generation   to  another 
(Houzeau).     We  are  too  apt  to  forget  the  influence  of  here- 
dity— the  transmission  of  ancestral  knowledge  and  experience. 
Many  savage  races  have  no  oral  traditions  even — that  is,  no 
tradition  of  any  sort,  except  that  which  may  be  involved  in 
organic  heredity.     It  does  not  follow  therefore  that,  among 
the  lower  animals,  in  the  absence  of  oral  tradition,  writing, 
and  printing,  each  individual  has  to  begin  its  education  and 
experience  de  novo',    that  it  receives  no  benefit  from   the 
wisdom  of  its  ancestry ;  that  there  is  nothing  like  an  accumu- 
lation, a  continuity,  or  a  permanent  record  of  the  results  of 
observation,  reflection,  and  experience.      Heredity  furnishes 
such  a  record :  the  brain  and  nervous  system — where  they 
exist — are  to  be  regarded  as  an  organised  register  of  ancestral 
knowledge  and  experience  (Spalding).     Traditionary  informa- 
tion has  been  described  in  bees  (Stickney)  and   in  many 
other  animals — that  is,  the  hereditary  transmission  of  inform- 
ation.    It  is  more  than  possible,  then,  that  certain  animals 
may  possess  traditions  of  a  kind  equivalent  to  some  of  those 
which  are  oral  in  man. 

18.  Knowledge  of  the  past.     Various  animals,  however, 
profit   by  past   experience,    and  they  have  very  retentive 
memories  for,  or  vivid  recollections  of,  past  events,  as  well  as 
of  persons,  places,  and  things. 

19.  Individuality.      But   this    is    quite    as   striking,   for 
instance,  in  the  dog  as  in  man,  as  is  shown  in  a  separate 
chapter. 

20.  The  power  of  will  applied  to  self-control.     But  it  is 
impossible  for  man  to  exhibit  self-restraint — the  repression 


110  DIFFERENCES  BETWEEN  MAN 

of  all  his  natural  appetites,,  instincts,  or  passions — in  a  more 
marked  form  or  degree  than  do  many  of  the  lower  animals, 
especially  the  dog.  Mere  will  in  other  animals  is  frequently 
as  self-assertive  and  powerful  as  in  man,  as  is  evidenced  by 
their  resolution,  determination,  and  perseverance. 

21.  Taste  for  the  beautiful,  the  good,  and  the  true.     Es- 
thetic taste  is  superior  in  many  birds  to  its  standard — where 
any  exists — in  large  numbers  of  men  even  among  civilised 
races,  and  still  more  so  in  the  majority  of   savage  races. 
Among  ourselves  it  has  become  a  proverb,  '  De  gustibus  nil 
disputandum ; '  and  if  we  confine  ourselves  to  woman's  taste 
in  dress  alone,  it  must  be  confessed  that  she  has  much  to 
learn  from  the  lower  animals,  especially  birds.    While  it  can 
scarcely  be  asserted  that  other  animals  appreciate  the  good 
or  the  true — seeing  that  we  have  no  means  of  ascertaining 
their  capacities  or  ideas  in  this  direction — it  can  with  much 
certainty  be  affirmed  that  whole  races  of  man,  and  whole 
classes  of  men  in  the  midst  of  our  highest  civilisation,  have 
no   conception  of  either   moral   goodness   or   of    truth — a 
subject  which  is  treated  of  in  one  of  the  chapters  on  the 
'  Moral  Sense.' 

22.  Sense  of  ennui.     But  it  undoubtedly  exists  in  other 
animals  under  the  same  circumstances  as  in  man — for  in- 
stance, among  luxuriously  kept  house  pets.     In  the  dog  it  is 
one  of  the  causes  of  suicide. 

23.  Love  of  sport  for  its  own  sake.     Dr.  Eobert  Brown, 
however,  tells  us  that  *  no  savage  has  any  idea  of  sport,' 
while  dogs  and  other  animals  hunt  for  their  own  amuse- 
ment, and  share  all  man's  pleasures  in  the  race  or  chase  or 
in  games  of  various  kinds. 

24.  Laughter,  tears,  and  soiling.     But  a  special  chapter 
is  devoted  to  show  that  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  is 
peculiarly  human. 

25.  Use  of  tools  and  weapons.    To  this  subject  also  a  sepa- 
rate chapter  is  devoted,  showing  how  many   instruments, 
natural  or   artificial,  are   used  by  the  lower  animals,  and 
under  what  variety  of  circumstances. 

26.  Knowledge  and  practice  of  agriculture.    Whole  races 
of  savage  man,  however,  have  no  agriculture  of  any  kind,  no 


AND   OTHER  ANIMALS.  Ill 

cultivation  of  the  soil.  There  is,  for  instance,  no  digging 
nor  sowing  among  the  Dokos  (Biichner) ;  no  agriculture 
among  the  Andaman  Islanders  (Owen).  The  Nuehr  and 
other  savages  'depend  for  subsistence  solely  on  what 
nature  produces,  therefore  neither  sow  nor  plant,  and  conse- 
quently are  frequently  on  the  verge  of  starvation'  (Biichner). 
The  Veddas  of  Ceylon  live  without  '  any  system  of  culti- 
vation '  (Hartshorn e),  and  the  Bushmen  of  Southern  Africa 
have  neither  nocks  nor  cultivated  ground  (Richerer).  On 
the  other  hand,  according  to  the  observations  of  Dr.  Lincecum, 
who  has  carefully  studied  its  habits  since  1848,  there  is  in 
Mexico,  Texas,  and  other  parts  of  the  North  American 
Union  an  ant  which  has  been  distinctively  called  the  '  agri- 
cultural '  or  '  harvesting '  ant.  It  '  not  only  stores  up  seed, 
but  cultivates  the  plants  which  are  to  provide  it,  and  care- 
fully gathers  in  its  crop  at  the  right  season.  ...  In  the 
wet  season  the  seeds  in  the  ant  granaries  are  apt  to  get 
wetted  and  to  sprout ;  and  accordingly  on  the  first  fine  day 
the  ants  bring  out  all  the  damaged  grain  and  set  it  in  the 
sun  to  dry,  returning  to  the  store  only  such  as  is  uninjured.'  * 
These  ants  may  truly  be  said  to  cultivate  their  estates. 
They  have  grass  paddocks  round  their  nests,  and  they  weed 
these  paddocks.  From  their  fields  they  clear  off  all  herbage 
save  Aristida  stricta,  a  grain-bearing  grass,  called  by  Dr. 
Lincecum  'ant  rice,'  and  they  sow  the  seeds  of  the  same 
grass.  When  ripe,  the  grain  is  harvested  and  the  chaff 
removed.  Several  other  grains  or  seeds  of  grasses  and 
other  plants  are  gathered  and  garnered  in  a  similar  way. 
These  ants,  therefore,  sow,  reap,  and  store  grain  for 
winter  use.  If  the  grain  is  set  a-sprouting  by  damp  from 
inundations  it  is  dried  in  the  sun  on  fine  days — it  is  exposed, 
that  is,  only  during  the  day  and  during  sunshine,  being 
taken  indoors  at  night.  According  to  Belt,  certain  leaf- 
cutting  ants  of  Nicaragua  cultivate  fungi  on  decomposing 
leaves  in  their  subterranean  nests,  'the  ants  cutting  and 
storing  the  leaves  for  the  sake  of  the  fungi  which  are  subse- 
quently developed  in  the  debris,'2  and  which  fungi  he  sup- 

1  '  Athenzeum,'  January  16,  1875,  p.  87. 
»  'Nature,'  April  8,  1875,  p.  458. 
9 


112  DIFFERENCES  BETWEEN  MAN 

poses  are  used  as  food.  The  growth  of  a  fungus  in  the 
interior  of  ant-hills  has  also  been  observed  in  India — an 
Agaricus  of  the  section  Lepiota — but  in  this  case  there  is  no 
apparent  connection  with  the  storage  and  decomposition  of 
leaves  or  other  vegetable  substance.  It  has  been  alleged, 
though  I  have  met  with  no  evidence  to  substantiate  the 
allegation,  that  other  insects  besides  harvesting  ants  culti- 
vate the  soil  and  collect  its  fruits.  Certain  Termites  are 
said  to  sow  seeds  (Houzeau).  There  is  fuller  evidence  that 
some  of  the  higher  animals  that  do  not  sow  them  yet  gather 
the  ripe  fruits  of  the  earth  and  use  them  as  food.  A  species 
of  harvesting  occurs,  for  instance,  in  apes,  that  gather  all  the 
fruits  of  a  given  spot.  The  Ladajac  reaps,  dries,  and  stacks — 
in  short,  gathers  in  its  harvest. 

27.  Use  of  fire,  including  the  art  of  kindling  or  pro- 
ducing  it.      Unquestionably  the   lower   animals,   unaided, 
cannot,  or  at  least  do  not,  produce  fire  by  friction,  or  by 
chemical,  mechanical,  or  other  means,  as  man  does;    but 
they   certainly  use  fire  if  they  do   not  make   it — e.g.   in 
warming  themselves ;   and   certain    anthropoid    apes    tend 
fires  and  furnaces,  bakers'  ovens  and  cooks'  galleys,  as  as- 
sistants to   or  substitutes  for  man.      Though  I  have  no 
record  of  any  instances,  there  is  nothing  to  prevent  such 
animals  from  using  lucifer  matches — the  only  means  of  fire- 
making  known  nowadays  to  perhaps  the  majority  of  civi- 
lised men.    On  the  other  hand,  there  is  absence  or  ignorance 
of  the  use  of  fire  either  for  cooking  or  for  warmth  among 
various  savage  human  races,  such  as  the  Dokos  of  Abyssinia 
and  the  Mincopies  (Biichner).     It  is,  or  was,  unknown  to  the 
Marianne  Islanders  and  the  Gouanches  of  Teneriffe ;  so  that 
its  use  is  not  universal  in  mankind ;  the  art  of  making  it  is 
not  instinctive ;  fire  itself  is  not  necessary  to  man's  exist- 
ence (Houzeau). 

28.  Use  of  the  metals,  including  metallurgy.     Certainly 
the  lower  animals  do  not  mine  metallic  ores,  extract  metals 
from  their  ores,  and  fashion  them  into  tools,  ornaments,  or 
weapons ;  but  other  chapters,  such  as  that  on  the  '  Use  of 
Tools  and  Weapons,'  show  to  what  extent,  and  in  what  variety 
of  ways,  they  make  use  of  metallic  substances— and  metallic 


AND   OTHER  ANIMALS.  113 

instruments — fashioned  by  man.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is 
no  use  of  the  metals — probably  no  knowledge  of  them — in 
certain  savage  races  of  man  (Biichner). 

29.  Cookery,  or  the  preparation  of  food.   A  special  chapter 
on  this  subject  shows  how  many  races  of  man  are  ignorant 
of  all  kinds  of  cookery — using  their  food,  whether  animal, 
vegetable,  or  even  mineral,  in  its  raw,  crude  state — and  how 
many  animals  prepare  their  food  in  some  way  prior  to  using 
it,  and  make  use  of  foods,  animal  and  vegetable,  cooked  by 
man. 

30.  The  use  of  hands  by — their  mechanism  and  structure 
in — man ;  the  absence  of  true  fingers  and  opposable  thumbs 
in  other  animals.      Man  is  approached,  however,  in  this 
respect  by  the  anthropoid  apes,  who  use  their  fingers  and 
hands  for  many  of  the  same  purposes  to  which  man  applies 
his — for  instance,  in  their  behaviour  at  table,  including  the 
use  of  table  utensils.     Many  illustrations  are  to  be  found  in 
the  chapter  on  the  '  Use  of  Tools  and  Weapons.'     Moreover 
paws,  beaks,  claws,  probosces,  horns,  and  hoofs  form  efficient 
substitutes  for  hands — e.g.  in  the  arts  of  animals.  Wood  has 
devoted  a  whole  volume  to  the  subject  of  '  Homes  without 
Hands,'  constructed  by  the  lower  animals. 

31.  The  use  of  clothing  as  a  protection  against  cold,  or  as 
a  covering  for  nakedness,  or  both.     But  a  separate  chapter 
shows,  on  the  one  hand,  how  many  races  of  man  wear  ab- 
solutely no  clothing,  and,  on  the  other,  how  many  other 
animals  improvise  a  dress  or  adopt  that  of  man. 

32.  The  construction  of  shelter  or  dwellings — another  of 
the  many  alleged  differences  of  sufficient  interest  to  require 
treatment  in  a  special  chapter.     It  is  there  pointed  out  how 
many  races  of  primitive  or  savage  man  avail  themselves  of 
the  natural  shelter  of  rocks,  caves,  or  woods,  constructing  no 
sort  of  habitations,   and   how  many  of  the  lower  animals 
build  themselves  dwellings  that  excel  in  substantiality,  com- 
fort, and  amenity  the  huts  or  hovels  of  men  even  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  highest  civilisation. 

33.  Blushing  is  not  peculiar  to  man,  though  it  is  much 
more  readily  seen  in  him  by  reason  of  the  colour  of  his  skin 
and  the  bareness  of  his  face.     Colour-change  in  the  skin,  or 


114  DIFFERENCES  BETWEEN  MAN 

various  of  its  appendages,  from  the  same  cause  as  that  which 
immediately  produces  a  temporary  hypersemia  of  texture, 
must  or  may  be  regarded  as  an  equivalent  to  blushing, 
while  the  feelings  which  give  rise  to  the  blush  in  man  are 
expressed  in  other  ways  in  other  animals,  though  not  less 
eloquently — e.g.  shame  and  modesty. 

34.  The  human  face,  it  is  alleged,  is  an  organ  of  expres- 
8ion — an  outward  index  of  the  mind — whereas  the  brute  face 
is  a  weapon  of  offence  and  defence,  an  instrument  to  pro- 
cure and  prepare  food  (Lawrence).     There  are  special  facial 
muscles  in  man  for  the  expression  of  emotion  (Bell) .   All  such 
statements  are  utterly  fallacious,  even  absurd.   It  is  shown  in 
the  chapters  on  c  Language '  that  the  face  of  the  horse  and  the 
dog,  for  instance,  in  spite  of  all  their  covering  of  hair — their 
eye  and  look  are  quite  as  eloquent  as  in  man,  while  compara- 
tive anatomists  have  demonstrated  their  possession  of  the 
same  great  groups  of  facial  muscles.     No  doubt  the  ram, 
goat,  and  other  animals  use  their  heads  or  horns  to  butt, 
bruise,  or  tear.      So  does  man  frequently  use  his  head  to 
butt  his  antagonist,  and  unquestionably  man's  mouth  and 
teeth  are  not  invariably  used  in  the  harmless  process  of  food 
prehension  or  reception,  but  too  frequently  for  the  belli- 
gerent purposes  of  biting  or  tearing. 

35.  The  erect  posture.     But  it  is  erect  or  semi-erect  in 
certain  anthropoid  apes,  and  it  can  be  assumed  temporarily 
where  it  is  not  natural  in  various  apes  or  monkeys,  or  in  the 
Quadrumana  in  general.    The  results  are  to  be  seen  in  their 
behaviour  at  table,  their  equitation,  their  usefulness  to  man 
as  sailors,  stokers,  or  domestic  servants. 

36.  The  size,  strength,  and  general  structure  of  body. 
But  man  cannot  compare  in  strength  or  size  with  the  elephant 
and  many  other  animals,  while  the  anthropoid  apes  resemble 
him  closely  in  the  general  structure  of  his  body — there  being, 
no  doubt,  differences  in  the  degree  of  complexity  of  certain 
organs,  such  as  the  brain.       How  little  mere  size,  strength, 
or  bodily  structure  has  to  do  with  the  degree  or  kind  of 
intelligence  exhibited  by  an  animal  is  shown  by  the  ant, 
which  in  many  respects  is  the  intellectual  superior  of  count- 
less numbers  both  of  men  and  elephants. 


AND   OTHEK  ANIMAL&  115 

37.  The  greater  length  or  duration  of  human  life — man's 
superior  longevity- — in  relation  especially  to  time   for  the 
accumulation    of  knowledge — for   exhibiting  the   fruits   of 
education  and  experience.     In  man,  however,  maturity  is  a 
much  slower  process  than  in  other  animals;  his  progress, 
mental  and  moral,  is  confined  in  general  to  his  earlier  years. 
Man's  advantage   is  therefore  rather   apparent  than  real. 
Moreover,    the    elephant    and    certain    other    animals    are 
sometimes  older  than  man,  while  many  attain  quite  suffi- 
cient an  age  for  the  maturity  of  their  mental  and  moral 
faculties.    Thus  at  an  exhibition  held  in  London,  in  October 
1874,  in   connection  with  a  prize  given  by  the   Baroness 
Burdett-Coutts   to   costerntongers,  carters,  waggoners,  and 
drivers  for  humane  treatment  of  donkeys,  horses,  and  ponies, 
4  one  pony  was  38  years  old,  one  donkey  34  and  another  26 
years   old.'      Orangs   live   for    40   or   50   years    (Biichner). 
*  Dr.   M'Bain,  R.N.,   at  Trinity,   near   Edinburgh,  has  an 
Actinia,  called  Grannie  (A.  mesembryanthemum),  which  has 
lived  in  a  glass  tumbler  for  51  years,  having  been  taken 
from  the  Frith  of  Forth  at  North  Berwick,  in  August  1823, 
by  the  late  Sir  John  G.  Dalzell.'  *      I  have   myself  been 
introduced  to  Grannie  by  her  present  proprietor.     But  even 
greater  ages  occasionally  occur.    Several  instances  are  given 
of  animal  centenarians.      Thus  the  common  grey  parrot  of 
Africa  'has  been  known  to  attain  the  age  of   nearly  100 
years'  (' Chambers's  Journal').    There  is,  or  recently  was, 
a  cat  at  Gundagai,  in  New  South  Wales,  supposed  to  be  at 
least  100  years  old.      It  was  brought  from  England  in  1788 
('  Science  Gossip').     A  swan  belonging  to  the  Earl  of  Fife, 
that  lately  died  at  Macduff,  and  is  now  preserved  (in  the 
stuffed  state)  in  the  family  museum  at  Macduff  House,  '  was 
supposed  to  be  about  80  or  90  years  of  age.'2 

38.  Preservation  of  the  body  in  health — the  prolongation 
of  life  by  artificial  means — by  knowledge  of  and  attention  to 
the  laws  of  health.   This  applies  only  to  the  sensible  minority 
of  highly  civilised  races  in  man,  while  the  chapter  which 
describes  self-submission  of  the  lower  animals  to  medical  and 

1  'Globe  Encyclopaedia,'  Edin.,  1875. 

2  '  Glasgow  Weekly  Herald,'  January  20,  1877. 


116  DIFFERENCES  BETWEEN  MAN 

surgical  treatment  shows  that  they  are  not  less  solicitous 
sometimes  about  their  bodily  welfare  than  are  mankind  in 
general. 

39.  The  gregarious  or  social  nature  of  man.  But  in  this, 
as  in  so  many  other  respects,  he  has  no  advantage  over  other 
social  animals. 

Such  are  samples  of  the  more  intelligible  objections  raised 
by  those  who  regard  man  as  zoologically,  morally,  and  in- 
tellectually different  from  all  other  animals.  But  numbers 
of  less  intelligible  objections  have  been  advanced  by  meta- 
physicians, theologians,  moral  philosophers,  and  others,  who 
are  determined,  in  one  way  or  other,  to  make  out  that  the 
animal  mind  differs  from  the  human  not  only  in  degree  but 
in  kind — if  indeed  many  of  these  objectors  go  so  far  as  to 
admit  the  possession  by  other  animals  than  man  of  anything 
approaching  *  mind '  at  all. 

For  instance,  to  man  is  assigned  the  perception,  and  to 
other  animals  the  non-perception,  of  '  speculative  truth.' 
Animals  '  apprehend  the  object,  not  the  subject,'  says  Goodsir. 
They  lack  the  '  faculty  of  apprehending  universals,'  according 
to  Sir  Alexander  Grant,  and  so  on.  What  such  expressions 
mean  I  cannot  profess  to  say,  and  I  willingly  leave  it,  there- 
fore, to  the  coiners  and  users  of  such  ambiguous  expressions 
to  prove  that  the  faculties  or  attributes  to  which  these 
expressions  refer  are  present  in  all  men — including  savage 
or  primitive  man — and  absent  in  all  animals  save  man,  or 
vice  versa.  The  probability  is  that,  if  this  or  that  moral  or 
mental  quality  can  be  shown  to  be  absent  in  the  lower 
animals,  it  will  prove  equally  so  in  vast  numbers  of 
mankind. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  a  few  writers  who,  feeling 
the  unsatisfactoriness  of  the  distinctions  immediately  before 
enumerated,  have  come  to  the  conclusion — and  the  proper 
conclusion — that  which  alone  is  based  on  the  evidence  of 
fact — that  the  difference  between  the  animal  and  human 
mind  is  one  of — 

1.  Degree  of  development  of  what  are  virtually  the  same 
mental  or  moral  powers ;  and  of  the — 

2.  Mode  or  manner  of  manifestation  of  what  are  essentially 
the  same  faculties. 


AND   OTHER  ANIMALS.  117 

That  these  differences  exist  is  incontestable.  It  is  a 
simple  fact  of  natural  history,  and  was  to  be  looked  for 
a  priori.  The  mode  of  exhibition  of  the  mental  and  moral 
faculties  necessarily  varies  with  the  structure  and  habits  of 
the  individual,  species,  genus,  and  tribe,  as  does  also  their 
degree  of  development ;  but  not  always  to  the  extent  that 
might  have  been  expected,  sometimes  rather  to  an  extent 
that  proves  very  unexpected.  Thus,  contrasting  man  as  a 
whole  with  other  animals  as  a  whole,  or  the  highest  types 
of  man  with  the  highest  types  of  animals,  it  may  be  said 
that  the  differences,  both  in  the  degree  of  development  and 
in  the  mode  of  manifestation  of  their  mental  and  moral 
powers,  are  very  apparent  and  in  favour  of  man.  But  if  the 
contrast  be  made  between  the  lowest  races  of  man — whether 
civilised  or  savage — and  the  highest  forms  of  animal  intel- 
ligence— the  best  fruits  of  animal  education — it  certainly 
cannot  be  said  that  the  comparison  is  in  man's  favour.  This 
subject  is,  however,  more  fully  and  further  discussed  in  the 
succeeding  chapter. 


CHAPTEE    X. 

ALLEGED   INTELLECTUAL   AND   MORAL   SUPREMACY   OF   MAN. 

THERE  has  always  existed  in  man  a  tendency  to  overrate  his 
own  mental  powers  and  moral  qualities  in  relation  to,  or  in 
contrast  with,  those  of  other  animals.  The  preceding  chapter 
has  shown  that  the  psychical  distinction  between  man  and 
other  animals  is  so  much  less  conspicuous  than  it  is  generally 
believed  to  be,  that  it  is  most  difficult  of  determination,  de- 
monstration, definition,  or  proof.  It  is  much  more  easy, 
indeed,  to  discover  and  demonstrate  the  points  of  resemblance 
than  to  define  those  of  difference.  The  differences  between 
the  human  and  animal  mind  are  sometimes  scarcely  or  not 
at  all  perceptible,  or  they  are  in  favour  of  the  lower  animals, 
not  of  man.  Much,  if  not  everything,  depends  on  the  cha- 
racter of  the  men  and  animals  that  are  the  subjects  of  com- 
parison. If  we  compare  the  most  intelligent,  virtuous,  good- 
tempered,  best  trained,  or  most  thoroughly  bred  animals — such 
as  the  dog — with  the  highest  types  of  man,  it  is  impossible  for 
man  to  excel  the  lower  animal  in  the  practice  of  many  of  the 
highest  virtues,  on  whose  possession  man  so  prides  himself.  If 
we  compare  such  dogs  or  other  animals  with  countless  thou- 
sands of  degraded  men,  in  civilised  as  well  as  in  savage  life, 
the  former  manifest  indubitable  superiority  both  in  morals  and 
intellect.  But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  we  contrast  the  highest 
type  of  man  with  the  average,  or  with  the  lowest,  type  of 
other  animals,  there  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  inferiority 
of  the  latter  in  many  points  of  morals  and  intellect,  on 
which  inferiority  metaphysicians  construct  a  defence  of  man's 
supremacy.  We  may  sum  up  by  saying  that  in  certain 
respects,  as  to  moral  and  mental  endowments,  certain  animals 


SUPREMACY  OF    MAN.  119 

are  the  equals  of  certain  men,  while  they  are  the-  superiors 
or  inferiors  of  certain  others.  The  human  infant  or  child,  at 
particular  stages  of  its  growth,  is  psychically  on  a  par  with 
some  of  the  lower  animals  ;  whole  races  of  savage  man  never 
attain  the  moral  or  mental  development  of  certain  dogs, 
while  man  of  the  highest  culture  is  facile  princeps  of  the 
moral  and  intellectual  world  here  below. 

Civilised  man  possesses  the  following  elements  of  supe- 
riority over  other  animals  : — 

1.  The  power  of  speech. 

2.  The  use  of  hands. 

3.  Knowledge  of  the  arts  of — 

(a)  Writing.  (d)  Glass-making. 

(6)    Printing.  (e)   Cooking, 

(c)   Metallurgy. 

4.  The  production  and  applications  of  fire. 

It  is  extremely  difficult  for  man  to  realise  the  magnitude 
or  importance  of  these  advantages  in  the  development  of  his 
moral  and  mental  nature,  and  to  make  all  due  allowance  for 
the  disadvantage  under  which  other  animals  labour  in  the 
non-possession  of  these  accomplishments.  The  influence  of 
dumbness,  for  instance,  in  man  in  the  non-development  of 
mental  power  has  been  pointed  out  by  Huxley  and  other 
writers.  But  be  it  remembered  always  that  some  at  least 
of  these  advantages  are  possessed  by  only  a  limited  number 
of  men — even  of  civilised  men — as  has  been  f  ally  pointed  out 
in  other  chapters. 

On  the  other  hand,  dogs  or  other  animals  that  may  be 
considered  in  their  way  civilised  or  humanised — both  as 
regards  the  individual  and  the  race  or  breed — that  have  been 
subjected  to  persistent  and  judicious  training  by  man — ex- 
hibit a  manifest  superiority  to  whole  races  or  classes  of  man, 
both  civilised  and  savage,  in  the  following  respects,  which 
include  the  noisiest  of  the  human  virtues  : — 

1.  Heroism,  patriotism,  self-sacrifice. 

2.  Compassion   or  sympathy,  charity,  benevolence,  for- 
giveness. 

3.  Love  and  adoration  of  a  master. 

4.  Fidelity  to  trust,  duty,  or  friendship. 


120  SUPKEMACY  OF    MAN. 

5.  Disinterestedness  of  affection. 

6.  Self-control,  forbearance,  magnanimity,  repaying  evil 
with  good. 

7.  Industry,  frugality,  foresight  or  providence,  diligence 
or  perseverance. 

8.  Honesty  or  integrity,  and  honour. 

9.  Ingenuity  or  inventiveness,  including  fertility  of  re- 
source. 

10.  Presence  of  mind  in  emergency. 

11.  Strength  or  force  of  will,  persistency  of  purpose  and 
effort. 

12.  Submission  to  authority  or  obedience  to  law. 

13.  Moral  sense  and  religious  feeling,  including   good 
feeling  and  right  conduct. 

14.  The  marriage,  parental,  maternal,  and  social  rela- 
tionships. 

15.  General  intelligence  or  intellectual  capacity. 

16.  Sexual  chastity,  and  modesty  or  decency. 

17.  Sobriety. 

18.  Personal  cleanliness. 

19.  Power  of  reflection  and  deliberation. 

20.  General  amiability,  from  goodness  of  disposition  or 
character. 

21.  Government  by  leaders. 

22.  Power  of  way-finding. 

23.  Acuteness  of  the  senses. 

24.  Administration  of  public  affairs. 

25.  The  artistic  or  aesthetic  sense. 

26.  The  construction  of  dwellings. 

27.  Knowledge  of  their  business  or  professional  occupa- 
tion, and  its  due  performance  as  to  regularity,  and  readiness 
or  willingness. 

Many  authors  have  discoursed  on  the  moral  goodness  and 
intellectual  achievements  of  the  lower  animals  on  the  one 
hand,  and  on  the  moral  baseness  or  badness  and  the  intel- 
lectual degradation  of  man  on  the  other.  Even  clergymen 
are  to  be  found  who  feel  themselves  bound  in  honesty  to 
admit  that  *  some  of  the  more  intelligent  of  the  brute  crea- 
tion show  actually  higher  powers  of  mind  than  some  of  the 


SUPEEMACY   OF    MAN.  121 

debased  races  of  mankind.'1  Scripture  itself  sends  man  to 
certain  of  the  lower  animals — the  ant,  locust,  spider,  and 
coney — for  lessons  in  such  essential  virtues  as  industry, 
forethought,  perseverance,  and  co-operation.  Miss  Cobbe 
describes  the  nobleness  of  the  dog's  general  character,  or  of 
many  of  its  higher  impulses,  as  at  least  comparable  with 
man's  highest.  Poets  and  novelists— writers  of  almost  every 
class — have  concurred  in  bearing  testimony  to  the  moral  worth, 
as  well  as  to  the  high  intelligence,  of  the  same  animal — the 
dog.  The  horse,  the  mule,  and  even  the  despised  ass  are 
frequently  man's  superiors  in  sagacity  as  in  amiability.  The 
elephant  gives  to  man  important  lessons  in  reflection,  deli- 
beration, ingenuity,  perseverance,  politeness,  obedience,  and 
affection.  The  beaver,  the  '  busy  bee,'  and  many  other  ani- 
mals practically  teach  him  diligence,  industry,  and  providence. 
Ants  show  him  their  model  societies,  and  make  him  feel,  if 
he  is  at  all  sensitive  and  sensible,  his  own  real  littleness, 
moral  and  mental,  compared  with  their  real  greatness.  And, 
in  general  terms,  animal  humanity  and  animal  sagacity  may 
well  be  studied  and  emulated  by  only  too  many  men. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  evidence  of  facts  has  compelled 
many  competent  and  frequently  unwilling  authorities  to 
regard  many  men  as  not  only  brutes,  but  as  morally  and 
intellectually  inferior  to  many  brutes.  Thus  the  Veddas  of 
Ceylon  are,  according  to  Hartshorne,  '  so  little  looked  upon 
as  human  beings  that,  when  a  Vedda  was  tried  and  sentenced 
at  Kandy  for  killing  another  Yedda  ....  the  jury  prayed 
for  mercy  for  the  criminal  as  being  only  an  animal ;  and  he 
was  fastened  up  like  a  caged  monkey.'2  These  Veddas, 
indeed,  as  they  have  been  described  by  Sir  Emerson  Tennent 
and  other  residents  or  travellers  in  Ceylon  prior  to  Mr. 
Hartshorne's  fuller  account  in  1875,  are  scarcely  to  be  dis- 
tinguished, even  zoologically,  from  the  monkeys  of  the  jungle 
in  which  and  among  whom  they  live.  The  South  African 
Bushmen  are  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Richerer  (a  missionary)  and  by 
other  travellers  said  to  be  '  lower  than  the  beasts  around 
them  in  moral  qualities,  intelligence,  and  foresight.'  The 

1  Rev.  J.  F.  Moor,  M.A.,  in  'Animal  World,'  February  1876,  p.  20. 
*  'Daily  Telegraph,'  August  30,  1875. 


122  SUPREMACY   OF    MAN. 

Bari  of  Tropical  Africa,  says  Sir  Samuel  Baker,  is  'below 
the  brute.  .  .  .  The  human  beings  of  Central  Africa  live  as 
animals,  simply  using  the  brain  as  a  director  of  their  chief 
wants.'  Livingstone  tells  us  that  the  soko  kidnaps  children, 
carrying  them  in  its  arms.  But  if  tempted  by  a  bunch  of 
bananas  it  lets  the  child  drop,  '  while  the*  young  soko  in 
such  a  case  would  cling  closely  to  the  armpit  of  the  elder.' 
The  Manyuenia  natives  say  that  the  '  soko  is  a  man,  and  has 
nothing  bad  in  him,'  thus  voluntarily  and  honestly  confessing 
his  moral  and  mental  superiority  to  themselves.  According  to 
Sir  John  Boss,  the  Eskimo  is  '  a  beast  of  prey,  without  any 
other  pleasure  than  that  of  eating.  .  .  .  He  devours  as  long 
as  he  can  and  as  much  as  he  can  get,  like  the  vulture  or  the 
tiger.  .  .  .  He  eats  only  to  sleep,  and  sleeps  only  as  soon  as 
possible  to  eat  again.' 

Man's  inferiority  to  many  of  the  lower  animals  is  not 
only  illustrated,  however,  by  the  moral  and  mental  condition 
of  savage,  primitive,  and  prehistoric  man,  but  also  by  certain 
degraded  or  degenerate,  or  uncultured  classes  or  indi- 
viduals in  the  midst  of  the  highest  civilisation — for  instance, 
by  the  psychical  condition  of  the  human  idiot,  imbecile, 
lunatic,  and  criminal,  as  well  as  of  hosts  of  persons  who 
are  simply  illiterate,  vicious,  or  of  low  intelligence  and 
devoid  of  any  refinement  of  feeling. 

It  is  desirable  here  to  give  some  attention  to  the  re- 
markable differences  in  moral  and  intellectual  quality  that 
occur  in  man — in  different  races,  classes,  and  individuals. 
It  is  most  instructive  to  study,  for  instance,  the  nature  and 
extent  of  the  psychical  differences  between — 

1.  The  infant  or  child  and  the  adult,  in  the  same  indi- 
vidual, among  the  cultured  classes. 

2.  The  two  sexes  in  the  civilised  adult. 

3.  The  moral,  religious,  virtuous  man  and  the  criminal. 

4.  The  individual  who  possesses  the  normally  developed 
mens  sana  in  corpore  sano,  and  his  idiot,  imbecile,  lunatic, 
and  criminal  brother. 

5.  The  poet,  mathematician,  theologian,  naturalist,  na- 
tural  and   moral   philosopher,   collectively  or   individually, 
and  the  collier  of  Lancashire,  the  labourer  of  Dorsetshire, 


SUPREMACY   OF    MAN.  123 

the  pottery  worker  of  Staffordshire,  the  hind  or  yokel  of 
Yorkshire. 

6.  The  civilised  or  cultured  adult  and  the  existing 
savage  or  the  prehistoric  troglodyte. 

These  differences  are  very  remarkable,  whether  considered 
as  regards  their  nature  or  their  extent — so  much  so  that 
various  authors  regard  them,  as  pointing  to  kind  as  well  as, 
or  rather  than  mere,  degree.  The  intellectual  difference  is 
not  so  great,  perhaps,  between  an  idiot  and  a  person  of 
average  intelligence  as  between  the  latter  and  a  Shake- 
speare or  a  Newton.  The  theological  and  the  scientific  mind, 
the  poetic  and  the  prosaic,  the  masculine  and  the  feminine,  the 
logical  or  mathematical  and  their  antitheses,  are  by  many 
regarded  as  essentially  differing  in  kind  or  character.  Those 
who  support  such  a  view  argue  that  no  cultivation  of  the 
one,  as  a  rule,  ever  produces  the  other — that  the  agricultural 
peasant  of  the  Cambridge  fens  cannot  be  metamorphosed 
into  the  wrangler  of  the  Cambridge  University.  In  other 
words,  it  is  held  by  certain  authors  that  there  is  a  psychical 
difference  in  kind  between  higher  and  lower  man  even  in  the 
same  race,  inhabiting  the  same  district  or  country.  By  other 
authorities,  again,  equally  competent,  it  is  contended  that 
all  these  and  other  singular  contrasts,  however  great,  are 
mere  differences  in  degree.  In  short,  even  as  regards  man 
himself  there  has  been  endless  discussion  as  to  whether  the 
striking  psychical  differences  that  characterise  certain  indi- 
viduals, classes,  and  races  are  distinctions  of  degree  or  of 
kind,  or  of  both  in  various  proportions.  There  have  been 
many  able  advocates  of  all  these  views,  and  in  a  sense  all 
have  been  right,  though  here,  as  in  so  many  other  questions 
affecting  our  views  of  mind  and  its  constituents,  all  or  much 
depends  on  our  definition  of  the  terms  employed. 

All  that  we  have  to  do,  however,  with  such  unsatisfactory 
discussions  here  is  to  show  that,  whether  such  differences  in 
man  are  to  be  regarded  as  of  degree  merely  or  of  kind,  of 
the  same  nature  are  the  mental  and  moral  differences  that 
distinguish,  or  that  are  supposed  to  distinguish,  man  from 
other  animals.  In  truth,  the  psychical  difference  between 
certain  animals  and  certain  men  is  much  less  obvious  than 


124  SUPREMACY  OF    MAN. 

between  different  individuals,  classes,  and  races  of  man 
himself.  Thus  the  difference  is  not  more  striking  between 
different  ages,  sexes,  and  other  conditions  of  man  than  be- 
tween the  lowest  savage  races  of  man  and  the  anthropoid 
apes,  the  dog,  or  even  the  ant.  Pierquin  held  that  the 
psychical  difference  is  less  between  the  human  infant  and  a 
lower  animal — such  as  the  dog — than  between  persons  of 
different  sexes  in  a  civilised  state  of  society ;  and  Houzeau 
considers  the  difference  between  savage  and  civilised  man  as 
great  as  that  between  man  and  the  ape.  But,  whatever  be 
their  extent,  that  such  differences  are  simply  of  degree  is  a 
doctrine  held  by  the  foremost  naturalists  of  the  day,  and  b}r 
an  increasing  number  of  those  who  allow  themselves  to 
study  the  subject  of  mind  throughout  the  animal  kingdom 
dispassionately  and  comprehensively.  That  the  differences 
in  question  are  of  kind  is  the  belief  as  yet,  nevertheless, 
of  the  majority  of  men,  including  those  more  ingenious 
than  ingenuous  philosophers  who,  like  Sir  Alexander 
Grant,  try  to  evade  the  obvious  difficulty  of  determin- 
ing whether  given  psychical  differences  are  of  degree  or  of 
kind  by  suggesting  that  they  are  of  degree  among  the 
individuals,  classes,  and  races  of  man,  but  of  kind  between 
man  and  all  other  animals.  In  other  words,  because  the 
lower  animals  are  not  man,  they  possess  a  different  kind  of 
mind — that,  namely,  which  consists  wholly  or  mainly  of  in- 
stinct, as  contradistinguished  from  man's  true  prerogative, 
reason.  This,  however,  is  but  a  remnant  of  the  kind  of 
vicious  and  futile  arguments  that  are  daily  being  made  to 
give  way  before  the  rapidly  accumulating  mass  of  scientific 
evidence  and  inference. 

The  moral  and  intellectual  differences,  then,  that  sepa- 
rate cultured  and  savage  man,  or  infantile  and  adult  man, 
or  the  two  sexes  in  man,  are  the  same  in  Idnd,  though  not 
necessarily  in  degree,  as  those  which  separate  man  from 
lower  animals.  They  are  quantitative,  not  qualitative. 
Houzeau  regards  the  real  distinction  as  confined  to  the 
higher  potentiality  of  man,  his  higher  mental  powers,  as 
well  as  the  actuality  of  their  higher  development ;  and  this 


SUPREMACY  OF    MAN.  125 

conclusion   commends   itself  as   a  judicially  fair  inference 
from  the  facts. 

Man's  claim  to  pre-eminence  on  the  ground  of  the  unique- 
ness of  his  mental  constitution  is  as  absurd  and  puerile,  there- 
fore, as  it  is  fallacious.  His  overweening  pride  or  vanity  has 
led  to  his  futile  contention  with  the  evidence  of  facts.  He  has 
trusted  to  a  series  of  gratuitous  assumptions.  The  supposed 
criteria  of  human  supremacy,  as  the  preceding  chapter  has 
shown,  the  alleged  psychical  distinctions  between  man  and 
other  animals,  cannot  stand  examination.  One  after  another 
they  have  proved  to  be  fallacious,  built  upon  unsatisfactory 
grounds.  A  careful  consideration  of  the  whole  argument 
for  and  against  man's  psychical  supremacy,  a  thoughtful 
analysis  of  the  alleged  or  supposed  mental  differences  be- 
tween him  and  all  other  animals,  must  lead  to  the  conclusion 
that  these  differences  are  superficial  and  apparent  rather 
than  radical  and  real.  That  man's  specific  designation,  then 
— Homo  sapiens — is  far  from  being  generally  deserved  or 
appropriate  becomes  obvious  when  we  compare  him  in  his 
lowest  savage  or  primitive  condition  with  such  other  animals 
as  the  dog  or  the  ant. 


CHAPTEE  XI. 

INTER-RELATIONS   OF   INSTINCT   AND   REASON. 

THE  terras  instinct,  instincts,  and  instinctive  are  used  in  so 
many  different  senses,  their  definitions  are  so  various,  con- 
flicting, confusing-,  ridiculous,  or  unsatisfactory,  or  it  is  so 
difficult  to  define  them  at  all,  that  it  would  be  a  great  ad- 
vantage could  they  be  dispensed  with  altogether,  and  other 
terms  substituted  possessing  at  least  less  ambiguity. 

In  the  first  place,  the  term  instinct  is  too  generally  used 
as  a  synonym  for  animal  intelligence  in  contrast  with  human 
reason,  judgment,  or  intellect.  Operations  that  in  man  are 
ascribed  to  reason  are  in  other  animals,  on  no  proper  grounds, 
assigned  to  instinct.  The  most  diverse  opinions  exist,  how- 
ever, as  to  the  possibility  or  propriety  of  separating  animal 
intelligence  from  that  of  man,  call  the  two  by  what  names 
we  may.  Some  authors,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  sequel,  hold 
that  there  is  an  absolute  identity  between  instinct  and 
reason  as  to  kind,  though  not  as  to  degree ;  others  think 
that  they  are  separated  by  a  perhaps  puzzling  borderland : 
others  believe  that  they  overlap  or  pass  into  each  other,  or 
that  they  may  co-exist  or  be  associated  in  different  degrees, 
or  thai,  the  one  may,  and  does,  supersede  the  other ;  while 
others,  lastly,  consider  that  they  are  so  strongly  contrasted 
by  their  very  different  attributes  or  characteristics  as  to  be 
diametrically  opposed  the  one  to  the  other.  In  the  next 
place,  many  of  what  are  called  instincts  in  other  animals  are 
what  in  man  are  described  as  feelings,  emotions,  propensi- 
ties, passions,  appetites,  desires,  impulses,  and  habits ;  but 
some  of  these  propensities  in  man  belong  to  the  lowest  class 
of  animal  instincts — for  instance,  his  whining  or  barking 


INSTINCT   AND  REASON.  127 

like  a  dog  in  hydrophobia,  his  eating  or  chewing  grass  like 
a  ruminant  in  various  forms  of  insanity. 

It  is  both  instructive  and  suggestive  to  compare  current 
popular  with  modern  scientific  definitions  of  instinct.  Popu- 
lar, and  especially  theological,  opinion  has  for  ages  delighted 
in  representing  instinct  as — 

1.  Perfect  at  birth.     Whereas  education  is  required,  even 
in  such  so-called  '  natural '  acts  as  sucking  the  teat  or  other- 
wise seeking  proper  food.     Spalding  has  shown  that  instinct 
is  never  perfect  at  birth,  that  its  development  is  gradual,  and 
that  there  is,  therefore,  progressive  improvement  in  or  of  it. 

2.  Unerring  or  infallible.  But  our  chapters  on  the  'Errors 
of  Animals '  show  how  frequent  and  glaring  are  the  failures 
or  mistakes  of  so-called  instinct,  how  identical  these  errors 
are  in  kind  with  those  of  human  reason,  and  how  absurd  it 
is  to  set  up  any  such  plea  as  infallibility  on  behalf  of  animal 
instinct. 

3.  Invariable  or  undeviating.     Our  chapters  on  '  Educa- 
tion '  and  '  Adaptiveness,'  as  well  as  other  chapters,  contain 
abundant   evidence   of  the  incessant    and    almost  infinite 
variability  or  plasticity  of  instinct ;  and  even  in  the  present 
chapter  it  is  desirable  to  make  a  few  special  remarks  on  the 
variations  of  instinct.     The  whole  phenomena  of  improva- 
bility — as  developed,  for  instance,  by  education — show  how 
unfounded  is  man's  belief  in  the  invariableness  of  instinct. 

4.  Blind  and  independent  of  observation.    But  our  chapter 
on  'Investigation' — including  observation  and  experiment 
in  and  by  the  lower  animals — shows  that  these  animals  are 
guided  by  impressions  on  vision  and   other  senses  just  as 
much  as  man  is,  probably  more  so. 

5.  Independent  of  volition — involuntary  or  non -voluntary. 
But  will  is  manifested  among  the  very  lowest  animals,  as  is 
pointed  out  in  the  chapter  on  the  '  Evolution  of  Mind  in  the 
Ascending  Zoological  Scale,'  while  every  degree  of  strength 
of  will  is  to  be  met  with  in  such  animals  as  the  dog. 

6.  Independent  of  experience  and  instruction.      But  the 
chapters  on  '  Education '  and  its  results  prove  that  this  sup- 
posed attribute   of  instinct  is  as  fallacious  as  any  of  the 
others. 

10 


128  INSTINCT  AND  REASON. 

7.  Without  consciousness.     But,  on  the  one  hand,  con- 
sciousness occurs  not  only  among  the  lowest  animals,  and 
even  among  plants,  while,  on  the  other,  there  are  many  so- 
called  mental   operations   in   man   that  take  place  in  the 
absence  of  consciousness — such,  for  instance,  as   the  phe- 
nomena of  what  is  now  called  unconscious  cerebration,  and 
of  cerebral,  spinal,  or  nervous  reflex  or  automatic  action. 

8.  Without  knowledge  of  the  end  in  view.      But  it  is 
shown  in  many  parts  of  the  present  work  that  animals  are 
actuated  by  very  definite  motives,  and  have  very  distinct 
purposes,  objects,  or  aims  in  view. 

9.  Its  object  is   simply  the  physical  well-being  of  the 
individual — the  preservation  of  the  species.     But  the  count- 
less instances  of  sympathy  and  self-sacrifice — of  life-saving 
of  other  animals,  including  man  himself — emphatically  con- 
tradict such  an  ungenerous  and  unjust  assertion — one  that, 
like   so   many  others   relating  to   animal  instinct,  we  can 
scarcely  believe  to  have  been  seriously  propounded  by  any 
person  acquainted  with  the  character  and  habits  of  such  an 
animal  as  the  dog. 

10.  Beyond  control.    We  know,  however,  that  many  ani- 
mals in  many  ways  exercise  an  amount  of  self-control  that 
would  do   credit  to  man    even    in  his  highest   states   of 
civilisation. 

11.  Rapidity  of  action  is  such  that  there  is  no  time  for  re- 
flection. And  yet  we  know  that  many  animals — in  proportion 
to  their  maturity  or  age,  their  experience  and  the  necessity 
for  the  employment  of  such  mental  faculties — exercise  reflec- 
tion in  the  same  ways  and  under  the  same  circumstances  that 
self-sufficient  man  himself  does.     They  take  time  to  consider 
the  probable  results  or  consequences  of  different  lines  of 
conduct,  and  after  most  mature  deliberation — including  the 
balancing  of  chances  or  probabilities — they  resolve   on   a 
given  course  and  carry  it  into  effect. 

12.  Arising  without  effort — as  impulses.    But  so  do  ideas 
and  feelings  of  all  kinds  in  the  most  intellectual  man. 

13.  Without  choice.     But  we  know  that,  in  an  infinitude 
of  ways,  animals  show  preferences  and  make  the  most  deli- 
berate selections. 


INSTINCT  AND  REASON.  129 

So  much,  then,  for  the  current  popular — and  especially 
theological — conceptions  of  the  character  or  attributes  of 
animal  instinct — conceptions  that  have  for  ages  barred  the 
way  to  all  progress  in  comparative  psychology.  Modern 
scientific  ideas  may  possibly  constitute  or  create  too  great  a 
reaction  in  a  very  opposite  direction.  The  favourite  concep- 
tions of  instinct  formed  and  expressed  by  our  most  eminent 
naturalists — especially  of  the  evolution  school  of  thought — 
are  that — 

1.  All  instinct  is  what  is  shortly  defined  as  *  inherited 
experience.'      The  idea  implies  that  experience   is   acquired 
and  transmitted,  being  accumulated,  intensified,  modified  in 
the  direction  of  improvement  or  otherwise,  and  organised  in 
the  transmission. 

2.  Instinct  is  only  a  lower  or  obscure  kind  or  form  of 
intelligence  or  reason. 

3.  Instinct  is  not  a  thing,  power,  faculty,  per  se,  but  only 
a  mode  of  action  common  to  all  classes  of  mental  aptitudes. 

There  is,  no  doubt,  much  that  is  true  in  all  these  modern 
views,  but  no  one  of  them  is  unexceptionable.  All  are  too 
sweeping  in  their  generalisation.  They  aim  at  explaining 
and  including  all  the  phenomena  of  instinct ;  but  they  fail 
to  do  so,  because  the  phenomena  in  question  really  belong 
to  three  different,  though  perhaps  provisional,  categories — 
to  wit — 

1.  Phenomena  already  explained — or  that  are,  or  appear 
to  be,  capable   of  explanation — by  the   laws   of  heredity, 
habit,  acquisition,  knowledge,  intelligence,  or  reason. 

2.  Phenomena  that  are  unexplained  at  present,  but  which 
will  probably,  in  the  course  of  time,  be  as  satisfactorily  ex- 

""N    plained  as  those  belonging  to  the  preceding  category;  and — 
J         3.  Phenomena  which,  at  present  inexplicable,  may  long 
^/~-or  always  continue  so. 

\  That  there  are  what  may,  with  perfect  propriety,  be 
designated  acquired — artificial,  hereditary,  inherited,  or 
transmitted — instincts  there  can  be  no  doubt.  Such,  for 
instance,  are — 

1.  The  fear  of  man. 

2.  The  dread  of  other  enemies — as  of  the  hawk  by  the 


130  INSTINCT   AND  REASON. 

sparrow  or  chicken,  the  lion  by  the  horse,  CEstridce  by  horses, 
cattle,  sheep,  and  reindeer. 

3.  Terror  of  fire,  water,  or  other  elements  that  are  dan- 
gerous to  life. 

4.  Barking — in  the  dog. 

5.  The  finding  of  lost  travellers  by  the  St.  Bernard  breed 
of  dogs. 

6.  The  slave-keeping  of  Aphides  by  ants. 

7.  The  sense  of  superiority,  and  its  expression  by  obe- 
dience to  leaders. 

8.  The  moral  sense — as  is  pointed  out  in  a  special  chapter. 
As  regards  any  individual  animal,  however,  such  instincts 

may  have  been  either  congenital  or  acquired.  They  may  have 
been  originally  acquired  as  knowledge,  experience,  or  habit  by 
some  ancestor — intensified,  modified,  and  transmitted  through 
successive  generations  of  offspring ;  in  which  case  they  be- 
come congenital  in  these  oifspring.  Or  they  may  have  been 
acquired  by  the  individual,  as  we  constantly  see  taking  place 
— for  instance,  as  regards  the  dread  of  man  and  his  instru- 
ments of  destruction  —  in  the  birds  of  unvisited  oceanic 
islands.  But  in  this  case  we  refer  the  acquired  dread  to 
knowledge  or  experience,  because  we  see  for  ourselves  its  origin 
and  growth;  and  it  is  only  when  a  dread  so  acquired  is 
transmitted  to  and  through  generations  of  offspring  that 
are  subject  to  a  like  experience,  and  when  this  natural  fear 
appears  at  or  immediately  after  birth  in  any  such  offspring, 
prior  to  the  possible  acquisition  of  experience  by  them, 
that  we  describe  it  as  an  instinct,  as  innate  or  intuitive, 
implanted  by  nature,  not  contributed  or  produced  by  ex- 
perience. 

It  is  frequently  most  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  in  given 
cases  to  distinguish  congenital  from  acquired  aptitudes.  One 
would  suppose  a.  priori  that  sucking  the  milk  receptacle  of  a 
mother,  or  the  selection  of  other  suitable  food,  or  the  lap- 
ping of  water  or  milk  by  the  dog  or  cat,  must  be  an  t  innate ' 
faculty ;  and  yet  we  are  assured  by  careful  and  conscientious 
experimentalists  that  these  operations,  with  many  others  that 
appear  to  be  congenitally  instinctive  or  intuitive,  are  really 
acquired  arts,  the  result  of  education  and  time. 


INSTINCT  AND  REASON.  131 

It  appears  to  me,  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge 
of  tlie  inter-relations  of,  or  confusion  between,  instinct  and 
reason,  convenient  at  least  to  assume  that  certain  instincts 
are  congenital,  certain  mental  powers  natural,  innate,  or 
instinctive.  Such,  for  instance,  are  to  be  regarded  the 
following  instincts  or  groups  thereof : — 

1.  The  more  purely  physical  ones  of — 

a.  Hunger  and  thirst,  including  the  so-called  predatory 
or  prey-catching  instinct. 

6.  Self-preservation,  or  the  love  of  life,  including  self- 
defence  and  self-protection. 

c.  Pleasure  and  pain. 

d.  Sense  of  existence. 

e.  Physical  comfort,  such  as  that  arising  from  warmth. 
/.  Play  or  snort — playfulness,  sportiveness,  or  friskiness 

in  the  young. 
g.  Migration. 
h.  Feeling  of  need  of  shelter  or  covering. 

2.  Those   connected   with  external  sensorial  impressions, 
such  as — 

a.  Weather-forecasting. 

6.  Sense  of  locality  and  direction,  with  perhaps  the  power 
of  way-finding. 

3.  Those  connected  with  the  sexual  appetite,  including 
pairing,  propagation,  and  incubation. 

4.  Those  connected  with  the  social  or  family  relationships, 
including — 

a.  Adhesiveness,  or  the  tendency  to  form  attachments  to 
person  or  place. 

6.  Love  of  society  or  companionship. 

c.  Longing  for  love  and  being  loved,  including  maternal, 
parental,  filial,  and  fraternal  longings,  yearnings,  or  affec- 
tion. 

d.  Sympathy,  compassion,  or  pity,  charity  or  benevolence, 
with  their  opposites. 

5.  Destructiveness,  including  cruelty. 

6.  Acquisitiveness — the  accumulation  of  property. 

7.  Combativeness. 

8.  Selfishness. 


132  INSTINCT  AND  REASON. 

9.  Love  of  power  and  glory,  including  pride  and  am- 
bition. 

10.  Love  of  liberty. 

11.  Sense  of  dependence. 

12.  Love  of  the  beautiful  in  sound,  form,  or  colour. 

13.  Love  of  novelty  and  variety. 

14.  Imitation. 

15.  Constructiveness,  including  technical  skill  and  art. 

16.  Feeling  of  modesty  or  decency. 

17.  Defiance,  and  its  expression  by  menace. 

18.  Sense  of  benefit,  with  its  expression  by  gratitude. 

19.  Fear,  including,  or  leading  to,  suspiciousness. 

20.  Sense  of  supernatural  agency — one  of  the  bases  or 
forms  of  the  religious  sentiment. 

There  are,  however,  endless  difficulties  in  the  application 
of  the  term  instinct  to  many  of  the  mental  aptitudes  just 
enumerated.  One  of  the  most  obvious  is  the  contradiction 
involved  in  two  such  conjoined  terms  as  the  '  instinct  of 
imitation.'  As  Spalding  points  out,  the  two  things — facul- 
ties or  qualities — are  antithetical  or  antagonistic,  inasmuch 
as  imitation  leads  to  incessant  modification  of  what  is  sup- 
posed to  be  unerring  and  unchangeable.  Again,  fear  is 
probably  invariably  developed  in  connection  with  ideas  of 
danger,  real  or  supposed,  and  of  the  means  of  escaping  or 
avoiding  it. 

Then  metaphysicians,  with  a  passion  for  elaborate  mental 
analysis,  tell  us  that  many,  or  perhaps  all,  apparently  simple 
instincts  are  really  compound.  What  appears  to  be  the  very 
simple  and  intelligible  desire  for  the  conservation  of  life, 
for  instance,  is  represented  by  authors  of  the  phrenological 
school  as  being  really  a  sense  of  danger,  a  fear  that  gives 
rise  to  caution  or  precautions. 

It  is  obvious  that  such  instincts  as  are  mentioned  in  the 
foregoing  enumeration  vary  much  in  their  character.  While 
we  may  easily  conceive  the  possibility  or  probability  of  some  of 
them  having  been  originally  acquired,'we  have  a  very  different 
feeling  in  regard  to  others.  No  doubt  all  may  have  been 
originally  acquired,  and  may  have  become  congenital  by  here- 
ditary transmission;  and  it  is  possible — nay,  likely — that, 


INSTINCT  AND   EEASON.     •  133 

in  the  course  of  time,  investigation  may  furnish  evidence 
that  not  a  few  of  them  were,  or  must  have  been,  at  one  time 
acquired  ;  but  I  very  much  doubt  whether  proof  will  ever  be 
furnished  that  all  classes  of  instincts  in  man  and  other  ani- 
nials — for  what  are  instincts  in  other  animals  must  be  equally 
so  in  man — were  acquired. 

Whether  or  not,  however,  we  are  to  regard  certain  in- 
stincts as  part  and  parcel  of  the  original  constitution  of  the 
genus,  species,  or  individual,  and  certain  others  as  acquired 
either  by  the  individual  or  his  ancestry,  there  are  undoubted 
attributes  of  instinct  that  deserve  or  demand  here  a  little 
special  attention.  These  attributes  include,  for  instance — 

1.  The  variability  of  instinct. 

2.  The  loss  of  old  instincts,  and  the 

3.  Acquisition  of  new  ones. 

4.  Their  perversions  or  derangements. 

5.  Their  latency. 

6.  Their  vicariousness. 

7.  The  dominance  of  certain  of  them,  and 

8.  The  antagonism  of  others. 

The  variations  of.  instinct  are  illustrated  in  other  chapters — 
for  instance,  those  on  'Adaptiveness,'  'Education,' '  Errors' — 
but,  even  though  there  should  be  some  unavoidable  recapitula- 
tion, a  few  remarks  on  the  subject  are  here  desirable.  Some 
of  the  best  illustrations  of  the  modification  of  instinct,  with, 
by,  or  according  to  circumstances,  are  to  be  found  in  the 
phenomena  of  nidification  in  birds.  Nest-building  is  popularly 
supposed  to  be  conducted  on  the  same  uniform  plan,  under  all 
circumstances,  by  the  different  individuals  of  the  same  species; 
but  this  is  very  far  from  being  the  case.  The  variation  of 
instinct  in  the  nidification  of  birds  was  long  ago  shown  by 
Audubon;  and  recently  the  late  Dr.  Pouchet,  of  Rouen,  pointed 
out  the  effect  of  change  in  the  domestic  architecture  of  man 
on  the  nest-building  operations  of  the  swallow.  Adams 
refers  to  change  of  habits  as  to  nidification  in  the  cliff 
swallow  of  North  America,  which  is  now  also  taking  advan- 
tage of  man's  dwellings.  Town  birds  very  commonly  build 
differently  from  country  birds  of  the  same  species,  selecting 
a  different  site,  shape,  or  materials,  or  all  their  methods 


134  •     INSTINCT  AND  KEASON. 

of  construction,  protection,  repair,  vary.  The  same  occurs 
in  birds  or  other  animals  —  still  of  the  same  species  — 
inhabiting  different  parts  of  the  same  country,  or  different 
and  distant  parts  of  the  world.  For  instance,  artificial  are 
sometimes  preferred  to  natural  nests,  materials,  or  sites ; 
man's  refuse — wool,  hair,  tow — man's  dwelling,  even  his 
prepared  artificial  nests,  are  selected,  rather  than  those 
materials  and  localities  that  were  or  are  made  use  of  by 
the  species  when  at  a  distance  from  man  and  his  works. 
Such  variations  in  nidification  are  obviously  determined, 
more  or  less,  by  various  specific  motives,  purposes,  or  cir- 
cumstances, such  as  necessity  or  desirability,  or  the  saving  of 
trouble,  or  the  love  of  society,  or  the  desire  for  protection,  or 
by  conditions  of  climate  or  temperature,  or  they  are  the 
results  of  experience  and  knowledge.  The  art  of  building 
fire-proof  nests,  moreover,  is  an  acquisition  on  the  part  of  the 
swallow. 

Birds,  however,  are  not  the  only  animals  that  modify  the 
character  of  their  nests  according  to  circumstances.  A  cer- 
tain trap-door  spider  of  New  Zealand,  as  has  been  recently 
pointed  out  by  Gillies,  according  to  conditions  of  soil,  loca- 
lity, and  surroundings,  '  constructs  an  entirely  different  type 
of  nest.'  It  shows,  he  says,  an  '  adaptation  to  special  cir- 
cumstances as  they  arise ; '  and  he  describes  it  as  conceal- 
ing its  nest  in  an  (  endless  variety  of  ways,'  the  materials 
being  *  as  numerous  and  various  as  nature  or  accident  has 
provided  in  the  neighbourhood.'  The  commoner  so-called 
'  geometric '  spider  also  varies  the  construction  of  its  nest 
(Blackwall).  The  nest  of  the  same  species  of  wasp  is  some- 
times differently  constructed,  according  to  the  locality,  the 
cause,  however,  not  always  being  apparent  (Kouget). 

Even  less  liable  to  modification  than  the  operations  of 
birds,  constructive  or  other,  are  popularly  supposed  to  be 
those  of  the  bee.  And  yet  Huber  tells  us  that  in  some  of 
his  experiments  humble-bees,  in  the  absence  of  the  usual 
material  for  roofing  their  nests,  tore  up  linen  clothes,  or  the 
cover  of  a  book,  and  carded  the  disintegrated  material  into  a 
felted  mass,  for  use  as  an  efficient  substitute  ;  while  he  gives 
many  instances  of  their  '  variety  of  resource  ....  in  adapting 


INSTINCT  AND  KEASON.  135 

the  form  and  size  of  their  cells  to  the  particular  places  or 
circumstances  of  their  work'  (Macaulay).  In  many  other 
ways  bees  abandon  routine,  make  deviations  from  custom, 
vary  their  operations  with  emergency. 

Again,  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  same  species  of 
ant  differ  according  to  its  residence  in  England,  the  south 
of  France,  or  India. 

Instincts  may  be  abrogated  or  lost  in  consequence  of 
changed  conditions  of  life.  Thus  domesticated  and  captive 
animals  that  are  kindly  dealt  with  by  man,  and  that  are  sen- 
sible of  the  advantages  involved  in  their  changed  mode  of  life, 
appear  frequently  to  lose  the  instinct  of  liberty  or  freedom, 
in  so  far  as  no  advantage  is  taken  of  the  power  or  opportu- 
nities of  flight  or  escape.  In  other  circumstances  instincts 
are  commonly  lost  when  they  are  not  required :  they  lapse 
under  disuse.  But  not  always,  for  there  is  sometimes  a  use- 
less and  even  a  troublesome  retention  of  the  old  instincts — 
for  instance,  in  the  captive  beaver.  There  is  frequently  a 
loss  of  one  or  more,  or  all,  the  natural  instincts  in  various 
kinds  of  disease,  mental  or  bodily. 

Just  as  old  instincts  lapse  where  they  are  not  required, 
new  ones  are  called  into  existence,  or  are  developed,  where 
they  are  needed ;  and  these  new  or  acquired  instincts,  it  is 
important  to  bear  in  mind,  are  as  transmissible  hereditarily 
as  the  old  ones.  Nor  is  it  less  interesting  to  note  that  new 
instincts  may  be  and  are  developed,  if  not  created,  ly  man. 
As  an  instance  of  the  natural  acquisition  of  a  new  instinct 
in  the  wild  state  may  be  cited  the  development,  since  man's 
settlement,  of  a  flesh-eating  propensity  in  the  fruit-feeding 
'  kea '  of  New  Zealand,  a  forest  bird ;  whereas  illustrations 
of  the  new  instincts  developed,  directly  or  indirectly,  by 
man  are  to  be  found  in  those  which  appear  in  domesticated 
animals. 

It  does  not  follow,  however,  that  all  instincts  described 
as  new — appearing  for  the  first  time  in  an  individual  or  spe- 
cies— are  so  in  reality,  have  been  created  where  or  when  they 
did  not  previously  exist.  Many  of  them  may  have  been 
merely  latent  or  dormant,  waiting  to  be  developed — to  be 
rendered  conspicuous  or  operative  by  necessity  or  by  favour- 


136  INSTINCT  AND   REASON. 

able  circumstances.  Thus  the  new  mental  qualities  deve- 
loped by  such  physiological  changes  as  maternity — the 
courage,  affection,  daring,  self-sacrifice,  which  distinguish 
maternal  love  in  birds  and  so  many  other  animals,  may  be 
regarded  as  belonging  to  the  category  of  latent  instincts 
ready  to  show  themselves  whenever  the  need  for  their  display 
arises.  Other  illustrations  of  dormant  instincts,  requiring  only 
to  be  roused  into  activity  by  some  such  slight  impression  on 
the  senses  as  a  casual  sight  or  sound,  are  to  be  found  in  the 
desire  for  freedom  being  awakened  in  the  domesticated  goose 
by  the  distant  cries  of  its  migrating  wild  fellows,  leading 
the  former  at  once  sometimes  to  join  the  latter,  thereby 
sacrificing  all  the  advantages  of  man's  association  (Houzeau) ; 
or  in  the  Eskimo  dogs  in  a  team  leaving  their  track  and  their 
duty  to  follow  game  if  it  happen  to  cross  their  path,  no  com- 
mand of  the  driver  having  then  any  power  over  them  (Parry) . 

There  is  frequently  a  substitution  or  transposition  of  the 
supposed  distinctive  instincts  of  one  sex  or  species  for  those 
of  another;  and  this  may  occur  naturally,  but  it  more 
generally  happens  under  artificial  and  exceptional  conditions, 
as  the  result  of  association,  imitation,  or  education.  Such 
instincts  may  variously  be  described  as  adopted,  acquired, 
unnatural,  vicarious,  and  transferable.  The  phenomena  of 
foster  parentage  abound  in  illustrations  of  this  class  of  trans- 
ferred instincts,  including,  as  they  do,  the  assumption  of 
feminine  duties  by  the  male  and  the  upbringing,  by  disap- 
pointed barren  females  or  by  bereaved  mothers,  of  the 
young  of  other  genera,  species,  or  individuals. 

There  is  frequently  also  a  signal  perversion,  vitiation, 
or  derangement  of  the  natural  instincts — for  instance,  of 
those  of — 

1.  Self-preservation  or  love  of  life,  in  suicide. 

2.  Love  of  young,  in  cannibalism. 

3.  Love  of  proper  food,  in  morbid  appetite. 

4.  Sexual  desire,  in  erotomania. 

5.  Destructiveness,  in  murder  and  self-mutilation. 

6.  Acquisitiveness,  in  kleptomania,  which  includes  useless 
hoarding. 

7.  Migration,  in  wholesale  sacrifice  of  life. 


INSTINCT  AND   REASON.  137 

8.  Combativeness,  in  morbid  pugnacity  and  irritability. 

9.  Adhesiveness,  in  morbid  aversions  and  causeless  an- 
tipathies. 

10.  Love  of  liberty,  in  indifference  to  captivity. 

Ample  illustrations  of  these  perversions  are  given  in  the 
chapters  on  '  Mental  Defect  or  Derangement,'  '  Suicide,'  and 
'  Murder.'  In  a  minor  degree,  vitiation  of  instinct  occurs  as  a 
necessary  result  of  pampering  in  household  pets.  This  cate- 
gory fitly  includes  the  non-gratification  or  repression,  as  well 
as  the  excessive  gratification,  of  the  more  imperious  physical 
instincts — particularly  the  sexual  one — the  effects  of  which 
are  specified  in  the  chapters  relating  to  the  'Physical  Causes 
of  Mental  Disturbance.' 

Certain  instincts  are  either  naturally  dominant  at  all 
times  in  certain  individuals,  or  they  are  so  at  particular 
times  or  under  special  circumstances.  There  would  appear 
to  be  a  constant  or  occasional  antagonism,  or  conflict  for  the 
mastery,  in  the  individual  character  between  various  power- 
ful instincts,  just  as  there  is  also  between  virtues  and  vices, 
good  and  bad  impulses ;  and  sometimes  one,  sometimes  an- 
other, gains  the  ascendency  for  the  time,  or  permanently. 
Thus  love  of  her  offspring — maternal  affection — frequently 
overcomes  the  love  of  life  in  a  mother,  developing  that 
recklessness  of  personal  safety  which  is  so  characteristic  a 
feature  of  maternity.  In  other  ways  parental  solicitude  is 
constantly  dominating  over,  neutralising,  natural  fear  or 
timidity — not  always,  however,  in  a  way  tending  to  the 
welfare  of  the  young ;  for  among  the  instincts  set  aside  in 
such  cases  for  the  moment  there  may  be  some  whose  abro- 
gation is  fraught  with  direct  or  immediate  danger.  In  the 
dog — not  a  water  dog — that  rescues  a  child  from  drowning 
compassion  must  overcome  not  only  its  natural  love  of  life, 
but  its  equally  natural  fear  of  water.  Timidity,  and  even 
suspiciousness,  are  frequently  mastered  by  wonder  or  cu- 
riosity. 

The  physical  instincts — such  as  hunger  and  thirst — are 
naturally  imperious,  overruling  sometimes  all  others.  Thus 
Gould  tells  us  of  parrots  and  honey-eaters  in  Australia 
rushing  to  the  edges  of  pools  for  water,  utterly  regardless 


138  INSTINCT  AND  KEASON. 

of  his  presence, '  their  thirst  for  water  quite  overcoming  their 
sense  of  danger.'  Hunger  constantly  conquers  the  fear  of 
man  in  the  robin,  as  does  in  other  birds  the  sense  of  immi- 
nent danger.  In  both  cases  the  bird  confidingly  seeks  the 
shelter  or  food-supply  of  man's  dwelling  or  person.  The 
instinct  of  self-preservation  is  often  overcome  by  voracity  in 
animals,  like  certain  vultures,  given  to  gorging  themselves  to 
repletion  with  animal  food.  But  those  instincts  also  which 
are  more  purely  moral  or  mental — such  as  sympathy,  gene- 
rosity, benevolence,  or  charity — frequently  conquer  the  purely 
physical  instincts  of  fear  of  danger  or  love  of  life.  The 
migratory  instinct  is  more  powerful  than  the  maternal,  lead- 
ing parent  birds  to  desert  their  young  broods  (Darwin  and 
Adams).  This  collision  of  the  migratory  and  maternal  in- 
stincts, and  dominance  of  the  former,  frequently  occurs,  for 
instance,  in  the  swallow  (Nichols). 

While  many  instincts  are  intelligible  probably  from  their 
simplicity  and  natural  relationships — such  as  motherly  love, 
self-preservation,  or  imitation — others  do  not  at  present  ad- 
mit of  satisfactory  explanation ;  for  instance,  certain  forms 
of  way-finding  over  previously  untraversed  ground.  This 
class  of  dubious  instincts  is  fully  illustrated  in  the  chapter 
on  '  Unsolved  Problems.' 

The  number  of  instincts  in  a  given  individual,  species, 
genus,  or  class  depends,  of  course,  on  the  view  taken  of  what 
is  or  constitutes  an  instinct.  Kirby  and  Spence  regard  the 
determination  of  the  number  of  separate  instincts  among 
insects  as  an  insoluble  problem.  Among  nurses  alone  in 
bees  these  authors  describe  or  refer  to  thirty  distinct  in- 
stincts, and  they  infer  therefrom  that  the  flexibility,  plasti- 
city, or  variability  of  instinct  is  greater  in  insects  than  in 
higher  animals.  Different  instincts  occur  in  different  castes 
of  the  same  species  or  community — for  instance,  in  ants 
(Houzeau) — and  there  are  special  instincts  in  different  breeds 
of  domestic  animals,  such  as  the  dog,  both  breeds  and  in- 
stincts being  gradually  developed  by  man's  selection  and 
culture. 

So  long  as  it  is  impossible  satisfactorily  to  define  instinct 
and  reason — so  long  at  least  as  we  possess  no  satisfactory 


INSTINCT  AND  REASON.  139 

definition,  so  long  as  we  cannot  draw  the  boundary  line 
between  them — it  is  impossible  to  determine  the  range  of  in- 
stinct and  reason  respectively  in  man  and  other  animals,  or  in 
any  individual,  species,  or  genus  of  the  latter.  Using  the 
terms  in  their  present  vague  and  contrasted  acceptations,  we 
are  quite  justified  in  asserting  that,  even  in  man — the  lower 
races  and  the  least  cultivated  of  the  higher  races — instinct 
predominates  over  reason,  impulsive  over  deliberate  action ; 
while  in  many  of  the  lower  animals — such  as  well-bred, 
thoroughly  trained  dogs — reason  predominates  over  instinct, 
reflection  over  impulse. 

Just  as  there  is  a  frequent  marked  dominance  of  one  in- 
stinct over  another,  there  is  an  equally  common  dominance, 
then,  of  instinct  over  reason,  or  of  reason  over  instinct.  The 
former  is  illustrated  by  the  well-trained  elephant  that  be- 
comes bogged  in  a  quicksand.  The  instinct  of  self-preserva- 
tion causes  it  to  forget  all  its  obedience  and  discipline 
— the  results  of  education,  which  could  operate  only  on 
improvable  reason — so  that  it  seizes  its  well-known,  and 
probably  well-loved,  mahout  in  order  to  give  itself  some 
solid  purchase  for  its  feet ;  and,  knowing  this,  the  mahout 
in  such  a  case  betakes  himself  at  once  beyond  the  animal's 
reach,  for  to  be  caught  by  it  in  such  extremity  would  be 
equivalent  to  certain  death  to  the  man.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  dominance  of  reason,  or  of  the  results  of  reason — obe- 
dience, discipline,  self-denial — is  illustrated  by  a  team  of 
Eskimo  dogs  watching  by  themselves  over  and  beside  a  dead 
reindeer  for  hours,  and  at  last  delivering  it  up  untouched  to 
their  human  masters  (Wood),  the  imperious  sense  of  hunger 
being  here  successfully  overcome,  the  extreme  temptation 
successfully  resisted.  Education,  training,  discipline — in- 
volving, it  may  be,  a  wholesome  dread  of  punishment — 
overcomes  natural  antipathies  and  appetites — for  instance, 
in  predatory  animals,  such  as  a  wild  eat  that  was  trained  to 
take  care  of  a  tame  sparrow,  or  in  dogs  brought  up  to  watch 
sparrows,  blackbirds,  partridges,  and  hares,  their  natural 
game  (Wynter). 

It  is  important,  in  all  considerations  as  to  their  real 
nature,  to  bear  in  mind  that,  just  as  various  instincts  co- 


140  INSTINCT  AXV  REASON. 

exist  in  the  same  individual  at  the  same  time,  and  may- 
modify,  neutralise,  or  supplant  each  other,  the  same  happens 
with  instinct  and  reason.  They  co-exist  in  different  degrees 
in  different  individuals  of  the  same  species,  and  the  one 
variously  modifies,  neutralises,  or  supplants  the  other. 
Even  in  civilised  man  instinct  and  reason  vary  in  their  inter- 
relations with  the  age  of  the  individual.  The  child  is 
moved  more  by  instinct  than  reason,  while  the  mature  or 
adult  man  is  actuated  more  by  reason  than  by  impulse. 
His  judgment  guides  and  controls  his  instincts,  while  in  the 
infant  free  vent  is  given  to  the  latter  and  their  control  is  a 
matter  of  education.  We  must  never  forget,  however,  how 
little  reason  frequently  guides,  or  how  often  rather  it  fails 
to  guide,  children  and  savages,  the  idiotic  and  insane,  and 
even  philosophers  themselves  in  their  acrimonious  disputa- 
tions. 

Ifc  has  already  been  mentioned  that  by  many  recent 
authors  instinct  is  regarded  but  as  a  lower  and  peculiar, 
obscure  and  not  as  yet  intelligible  or  understood,  form  of 
intelligence.  Whether  or  not  this  view  be  generally  adopted, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  intimate  relationship  between 
the  two — an  intimacy  of  connection  that  is  illustrated  by 
the  impossibility  of  properly  differentially  denning  them  ; 
for  it  has  been  shown  in  the  earlier  part  of  this  chapter  that 
all  the  current  definitions  by  so-called  mental  philosophers — 
including,  for  instance,  those  of  Paley,  Whately,  Hamilton, 
Brougham,  Eeid — are  more  or  less  faulty  and  mischievous 
or  a,bsurd. 

On  the  whole,  it  does  not  seem  to  be  yet  possible  conve- 
niently to  discard  the  term  instinct.  No  doubt  it  has  long 
been  a  cloak  for  our  ignorance  and  prejudice.  The  con- 
tinued use  of  such  an  ambiguous,  indefinable  term  must  be 
held  tantamount  to  a  confession  of  ignorance.  There  is  no 
reason,  however,  for  a  concealment  of  ignorance  where  igno- 
rance really  exists ;  so  that,  even  from  this  point  of  view, 
the  employment  of  such  a  provisional  and  objectionable  term 
is  defensible.  At  present  we  have  no  better  term  to  sub- 
stitute for  it.  We  cannot  yet  refer  all  the  mental  or  pseudo- 
mental  phenomena  exhibited  either  by  man  or  other  animals 


INSTINCT  AND  REASON.  141 

to  reason  or  intelligence ;  and  until  we  can  do  so,  or  other- 
wise satisfactorily  name  and  classify  them,  it  is  at  least  an 
advantage  or  convenience  to  retain  the  term  '  instinct '  as  a 
provisional  designation  for  all  the  phenomena  in  question  that 
are  not  at  present  classifiable  under  or  assignable  to  reason. 
But  when  the  study  of  comparative  psychology  attracts  the 
attention  it  so  well  deserves,  and  in  proportion  as  it  is  pro- 
perly studied,  more  and  more  of  the  mental  operations  of 
the  lower  animals  will  be  relegated  to  intelligence,  more  and 
more  will  it  come  to  be  recognised  that  what  is  instinct  or 
intelligence  in  man  is  equally  so  in  other  animals — in  short, 
that  their  psychical  organisation  is  alike. 

Physiologists  and  mental  philosophers  tell  us  that  rea- 
soning in  man  consists  of  comparison,  abstraction,  generali- 
sation, recollection,  reflection,  and  imagination  (Carpenter) ; 
that  is  reason  when  fully  developed  and  in  its  higher 
forms.  For  it  need  not  be  affirmed  by  the  enthusiastic 
philanthropist  that  all  men,  lower  as  well  as  higher,  and 
in  all  their  stages  of  growth — in  infancy  and  old  age  as  in 
maturity,  and  in  disease  as  well  as  health — can  abstract, 
generalise,  reflect,  compare,  imagine,  or  even  recollect.  In 
so  far,  however,  as  it  can  truthfully  be  said  that  man,  as  a 
species,  possesses  such  mental  faculties,  it  must  equally  be 
admitted  that  all  of  them  occur  also  in  certain  other  ani- 
mals— not  necessarily  in  the  same  degree,  or  manifested  in 
the  same  way,  though  the  difference,  as  has  been  shown  in 
other  chapters,  is  not  always  or  often  in  favour  of  man. 
The  constant  exercise  of  reason,  indeed,  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  many  of  the  commonest  or  most  familiar  actions  of 
animals.  In  other  words,  they  are  necessarily,  in  varying 
degree,  rational  creatures — if  man's  actions  under  similar 
circumstances  are  to  be  considered  rational.  As  contrasted 
with  popular  conceptions  of  instinct,  reason  in  other  ani- 
mals, as  in  man,  is  fallible,  progressive,  slow  in  action ; 
while,  so  far  from  being  simple,  it  involves  operations  of 
considerable  complexity.  Obviously  certain  of  the  lower 
animals  can  and  do  engage  in  regular  or  irregular  courses 
or  trains  of  reasoning  or  thought,  and  the  process  of  reason- 
ing in  them  is  essentially  what  it  is  in  man. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

UNSOLVED  PEOBLEMS  IN  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  THE  LOWER 
ANIMALS. 

We  have  seen,  or  have  yet  to  see,  how  many  of  the  doings 
of  animals,  formerly  ascribed  to  instinct,  are  really  attribut- 
able to  reason  or  intelligence,  to  observation  and  reflection ; 
but  there  are  many  other  phenomena  connected  with  their 
habits  which  at  present  we  cannot  explain  satisfactorily. 
To  ascribe  such  phenomena  to  instinct  is  merely  to  confess 
our  ignorance  by  the  use  of  a  term  that  has  in  such  a  case 
no  definite  signification,  that  has  for  ages  been  applied  to 
phenomena  that  belong  to  tbe  province  of  reason.  The  use 
of  such  a  term  in  such  a  context  is  mischievous,  as  consti- 
tuting an  obstacle  to  scientific  investigation. 

It  is  much  better  to  relegate  all  such  puzzling  faculties 
or  phenomena  simply  to  the  category  of  the  unexplained,  so 
that  special  attention  may  be  drawn  towards  them  and  may 
lead  to  their  experimental  investigation.  It  is  quite  possible 
that  it  may  be  necessary  further  to  relegate  certain  of  these 
faculties  or  phenomena  to  the  category  of  the  inexplicable. 
We  may  never  be  able  to  explain  them  satisfactorily  on  the 
theory  either  of  reason  or  instinct.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  probability  is  that  due  investigation  will  enable  us  to 
remove  the  majority  of  such  problems  from  the  category  of 
the  unexplained  or  even  the  apparently  inexplicable  to  that  of 
those  that  admit  of  satisfactory  explanation,  as  being  deter- 
mined by,  or  dependent  upon,  ordinary  intelligence  or  in- 
stinct. It  may  be  that  we  have  to  look  for  missing  links  in 
the  chain  of  evidence,  or  that  we  have  simply  to  exclude  by 
experimental  tests  certain  suggested  explanations,  and  so 
gradually  limit  the  issue. 


UNSOLVED   PROBLEMS.  143 

Possible  solutions  of  the  problems  in  question  have  from 
time  to  time  been  offered  by  ingenious,  imaginative  men. 
Such  suggestions  are  not  to  be  despised  or  rejected  until  at 
least  they  have  been  rigorously  applied  by  competent  expe- 
rimentalists to  the  facts.  The  suggestions  alluded  to,  that 
are  applicable,  or  that  have  been  applied,  to  different  cases, 
include  the  following  :  that — 

1.  The  lower  animals  use  their  senses  in  ways  unknown 
to  man ;  their  senses,  moreover,  though  the  same  in  kind 
with  his,  being  much  more  acute  or  delicate.     The  special 
senses  involved  are  smell,  vision,  and  hearing. 

2.  Certain  animals,  and  perhaps  man  himself,  possess 
additional  or  supplementary  senses,  such  as  a  sixth  sense  of 
direction,  locality,  way-finding  or  homing,  or  of  polarity — 
an  intuitive  knowledge  of  the  points  of  the  compass. 

3.  The  lower  animals,  or  certain  of  them,  are  susceptible 
to  various  influences  that  do  not  affect  man. 

4.  There  may  be  much  unconscious   observation   on  the 
part  of  the  animals,  unnoticed  observation  on  the  part  of 
man.     This  may  include,  for  instance,  attention  to  the  posi- 
tion of  the  sun,  the  noticing  of  landmarks  and  their  topo- 
graphical relations. 

5.  Unknown  faculties,  instincts,  or   susceptibilities  may 
exist. 

6.  Powers  or  capacities  that  are  usually  latent  may  be,  as 
Bishop  Butler  suggests,  called  into  action. 

One  of  the  commonest  and  best  illustrations  of  pheno- 
mena at  present  or  as  yet  unexplained  is  the  way-  or  home- 
finding  by  the  dog,  horse,  ass,  cat,  and  other  animals  over 
ground  previously  unvisited  by  and  therefore  unknown  to 
them.  I  am  leaving  out  of  view  all  cases  in  which,  by  any  pos- 
sibility, memory  or  observation  could  have  been,  or  probably 
were,  operative — for  instance,  in  the  flights  of  courier  or  car- 
rier pigeons — and  refer  only  to  those  numerous  cases  in  which 
various  pet  animals  hare  been  taken  by  masters  or  mistresses 
long  distances  from  home  by  routes  previously  untraversed, 
in  conveyances  varying  extremely  in  their  character,  and 
have  found  their  own  way  home  by  a  different  route,  usually 
the  shortest  and  most  direct,  equally  unknown  to  them,  and 
11 


144  UNSOLVED  PROBLEMS. 

generally  on  foot  where  land  alone  had  to  be  traversed. 
Authentic  instances,  incidents,  or  anecdotes  of  this  kind  are 
simply  innumerable.  Here  it  is  desirable  to  refer  only  to  a 
few,  as  illustrating  their  varying  character  in  detail. 

1.  A  collie  (dog)  found  its  way  home  by  itself  from  Cal- 
cutta to  Inverkeithing   (Fifeshire,  Scotland).     It  had  come 
from  Calcutta  in  a  ship  bound  for  Dundee,  and  from  Dundee 
in  a  collier  bound  for  Inverkeithing  (Wood). 

2.  Certain  French  bees  having  been  sent  abroad  in  order 
to  their  acclimatisation  in  a  French  colony,  found  their  way 
home  in  French  vessels  (Pierquin). 

3.  A  dog  was  taken,  by  the  most  different  modes  of  con- 
veyance, including  country  roads  and  city  streets  (walking), 
market  boat,  railway,  and  steamer,  from  Holywell   (Wales) 
to  Manchester.     It  found  its  way  back  in  a  couple  of  days, 
performing  part  of  its  journey  in  the  dark  (Wood). 

4.  A  fox  twice  found  its  way  on  foot  from  Westmoreland 
to  Kent  (Jesse). 

5.  A  King  Charles  spaniel  made  its  way  from  Lincoln- 
shire to  the  Isle  of  Wight  (Jesse). 

In  all  such  cases  the  presumable  motive  is  attachment  to 
and  memory  of  locality  or  person,  home  love,  perhaps  home 
sickness.  It  has  to  be  remarked  that  the  animals  usually 
credited  with  the  possession  of  the  homing  or  way-finding 
faculty  are  those  that  are  domesticated,  which  show,  on  the 
one  hand,  the  strongest  attachment  to  homeland  master, 
and  on  the  other  the  greatest  general  intelligence.  But, 
whatever  it  be,  the  motive  must  be  strong,  for  the  peril  and 
fatigue  involved  are  usually  great,  and  starvation,  exposure, 
exhaustion,  and  death  frequently  result  from  the  effort. 

Accepting  the  facts  as  narrated,  it  would  be  easy  to  specu- 
late to  an  unlimited  and  unprofitable  extent  as  to  how,  for 
instance,  the  Scotch  collie  carne  to  select  the  proper  vessels  to 
bear  it  to  Scotland  and  to  Inverkeithing.  It  is  quite  credible 
that  the  dog  should  have  recognised  the  language  of  its 
master  as  spoken  by  Scotch  sailors,  for  we  know  full  well 
that  shepherds'  dogs  and  other  dogs  are  acquainted  with 
human  words  and  phrases  and  their  meanings;  but  it  by 
no  means  follows  that  what  is  credible  actually  occurred, 


UNSOLVED  PEOBLEMS.  145 

nor  would  the  supposition  that  this  particular  collie  recog- 
nised Scotch  as  contrasted  with  Hindoo  words  help  us  far 
in  the  explanation  of  all  the  phenomena  of  its  remarkable 
journey.  We  should  still  have  to  account  for  its  discrimi- 
nating between  a  Scotch-  and  English-bound  vessel,  and 
even  were  we  to  assume  that  it  shipped  itself  accidentally  in 
a  vessel  for  Dundee,  we  must  still  explain  how  it  came  to 
select  another  vessel  bound  for  Inverkeithing. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  forms  of  way-finding  by  ani- 
mals is  their  frequently  taking  a  direct  course  homewards 
from  any  given  point.  From  the  bee's  habit  of  doing  so  in 
returning  to  its  hive  after  honey-collecting,  such  a  straight 
homeward  course  is  usually  spoken  of  as  a  bee  line.  Progs 
make  bee  lines  for  food  or  water ;  horses  do  the  same  for 
their  favourite  pasturages,  and  they  take  the  straightest 
route  back  when  they  have  been  led  or  driven  circuitously 
from  home  (Houzeau).  There  are  certain  other  forms  of 
way-finding  that  are  as  insusceptible  of  explanation  as  those 
already  described — for  instance — 

1.  In  the  dark,  or  in  snow-storms. 

2.  In  dangerous  or  trackless  localities. 

3.  In  the  din  and  confusion  of  battle  or  of  the  battle- 
field. 

Mules  in  dark  mines  know  and  find  alone,  unaided,  their 
respective  working  places.  Not  only  so,  but,  as  in  so  many 
other  cases,  ^nan's  presence  and  attempted  direction  serves 
simply  to  mislead  and  annoy  the  more  sagacious  and  trust- 
worthy *  lower '  animal.  The  leader  of  Eskimo  dog-teams 
finds  his  way  through  blinding  snow  (Parry).  The  horse 
and  mule  show  their  superiority  in  some  respects  to  their 
riders  by  way-finding  in  dangerous  Alpine  or  other  paths, 
where  it  is  usually  the  best  policy  to  leave  them  to  their  own 
guidance,  their  own  observation,  judgment,  and  discretion. 
(Farley).  They  may  be  trusted  to  find  their  way  when  their 
rider  is  ignorant  of  the  road,  has  lost  his  way,  deviated  from 
some  scarce  perceptible  track,  or  is  incapable  of  directing 
the  animal's  movements — when,  for  instance,  he  is  drunk 
and  has  fallen  off,  or  has  been  shot  off  in  battle.  Another 
puzzling  form  of  way-finding  is  connected  with  the  discovery 


146  UNSOLVED   PROBLEMS. 

by  pet  dogs  of  their  masters'  bodies  among  the  slain  after  or 
during  battle — as  at  Sedan  or  Waterloo  ('Animal  World'). 

It  must  be  obvious  that  all  the  forms  of  way-finding  above 
mentioned  are  not  precisely  of  the  same  class  or  character. 
In  certain  cases  the  route  may  have  been,  or  certainly  had 
been,  previously  travelled,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Eskimo  dog 
leader,  that  finds  its  way  in  blinding  snow  only  when  it  has 
formerly  traversed  the  same  route ;  or  the  animal  may,  and 
obviously  does,  make  use  of  its  senses,  such  as  scent,  as  well 
as  of  its  intelligence,  observation,  and  memory ;  but  in  other 
cases  of  previously  untraversed  land  and  sea,  and  of  great 
distances,  the  numerous  discussions  that  have  been  recorded 
in  *  Nature '  and  elsewhere  as  to  the  parts  respectively  played 
by  a  sixth  sense,  or  by  smell  and  vision,  show  that  it  cannot 
be  said  that  any  satisfactory  solution  of  the  problem  has  yet 
been  offered  and  accepted. 

In  studying  the  interesting  subject  of  way -finding  in 
other  animals  it  is  important  to  enquire  how  far  such  a 
power  occurs  in  man,  and  what  is  its  nature  if  and  when  it 
is  displayed  by  him.  In  the  first  place,  then,  many  savage 
races  are  known  to  possess  a  power — not  enjoyed  by  the  civi- 
lised white  man — of  way-finding  over  trackless  prairies  and 
through  pathless  woods.  The  red  men  of  North  America 
are  good  instances  of  such  prairie  trackers,  and  the  Austra- 
lian blacks  of  bush  way-finders.  In  both  cases,  just  as  it 
is  also  among  the  lower  animals,  the  faculty*in  question 
has  been  popularly  regarded  as  an  instinct  (Watson).  As 
regards  the  North  American  Indians  and  their  path-finding 
through  the  forests  of  Canada  and  New  Brunswick,  Dr. 
Adams  points  out  that  they  are  guided  by  observation — for 
instance,  of — 

1.  The  direction  of  the  bent  or  fall  of  trees. 

2.  The  position  of  their  lichen-coating — both  of  which 
show  the  prevalent  winds. 

3.  The  course  of  streams. 

4.  A  certain  amount  of  star  knowledge. 

In  other  words,  according  to  him,  their  faculty,  know- 
ledge, or  skill  is  simply  the  result  of  observation  and  experience. 
Unfortunately,  it  is  said  that  so  useful  a  faculty  is  usually 


UNSOLVED  PROBLEMS.  147 

obliterated  by  civilisation.  Not  always  or  necessarily,  how- 
ever ;  for  it  has  been  shown  that  white  settlers  in  new  coun- 
tries, who  are  called  upon  by  the  necessities  of  life  to  develope 
and  cultivate  the  same  closeness  of  observation  of  natural 
objects  or  phenomena,  to  acquire  the  same  kind  and  amount 
of  experience,  acquire  also  the  same  useful  path-finding 
faculty  through  forest  or  over  prairie. 

Unerring  accuracy  in  way-finding  has  been  alleged  on 
behalf  of  the  Mongols,  as  on  that  of  the  lower  animals,  while 
the  hunters  of  Kansas  make  use  of  a  straight  or  lee  line  in 
certain  cases ;  but  there  is  no  good  ground  for  believing 
that  this  so-called  *  instinct '  is  less  fallible  than  other  forms 
or  faculties,  whether  of  instinct  or  of  reason.  Equally  in 
man  and  other  animals,  such  way-finding  as  we  have  been 
considering  is  rare  and  exceptional,  while  way -losing  is  ex- 
tremely common  even  in  short  distances  and  on  ground 
previously  traversed.  It  is  only  exceptionally  intelligent 
animals  and  men,  and  under  exceptional  cii-cumstances, 
that  find  their  way  over  long  stretches  of  previously  untra- 
versed  land  or  sea.  Nichols,  who  has  had  great  experience 
in  the  Australian  bush,  and  has  studied  way-finding  there 
by  the  horse,  referring  to  the  remarkable  rapidity  with 
which  it  frequently  makes  its  way  home,  explains  that  this 
faculty  is  exhibited  only  occasionally,  by  certain  horses, 
under  certain  circumstances.  Success  in  way-finding  is, 
he  thinks,  in  proportion  to  the  animal's  intelligence.  He 
ascribes  it  to  the  use  of  no  mysterious  or  occult  power  or 
knowledge.  It  is  determined  by  attachment  to  home  and 
by  some  knowledge  of  locality,  both  involving  memory  of 
places  and  persons  and  attention  to  landmarks.  Home- 
coming depends  on  distance  from  home,  the  duration  of 
absence,  the  discomforts  of  change  of  residence  and  of  a  new 
home,  the  sense  of  strangeness  therein.  But  the  home- 
longing  may  be  overcome  by  kindness  of  treatment ;  attach- 
ment to  a  new  home  and  master  may  gradually  weaken  and 
dissipate  the  first  home  sickness,  until  the  animal  loses  both 
its  desire  for  return  to  its  old  quarters  and  its  memory  of 
the  way. 

Nor  must  we  leave  out  of  view  the  singular  and  accurate 


148  UNSOLVED   PROBLEMS. 

way- finding  of  blind  men  in  the  crowded,  noisy  streets  of  our 
large  cities.  The  blind  beggars  of  London,  for  instance,  find 
their  way  safely  through  all  its  intricacies,  apparently  by 
sound  and  touch,  while  they  recognise  each  other  probably 
by  voice-sounds  (Greenwood).  In  these  men  certain  senses, 
such  as  hearing  and  touch,  apparently  become  preternatu- 
rally  acute  by  high  cultivation  and  constant  use. 

It  may  safely  be  affirmed  that,  equally  in  the  lower  ani- 
mals and  in  man,  whether  civilised  or  savage,  in  the  Mongol 
or  Red  Indian,  white  settler  or  blind  man,  the  frequently 
remarkable  power  of  way- finding  depends  in  great  measure, 
if  not  entirely,  upon  intelligence,  observation,  and  experi- 
ence. That  in  many  cases  of  way -finding,  observation  of 
locality  or  landmarks  is  necessary  is  shown  by  such  facts 
as  that  birds  engaged  in  long  flights  make  them  by  day, 
resting  at  night,  and  that  rooks,  losing  their  way  in  fog, 
wait  as  prudently  as  men  would  for  a  clear  and  light  atmo- 
sphere to  resume  their  journey  (Nichols) .  Way-finding  occurs 
in  the  most  intelligent,  observant,  and  experienced  animals, 
and  in  men  whose  intelligence,  observation,  and  experience 
have  been  exercised  in  special  directions ;  and  there  are  no 
instances  of  its  occurring  under  opposite  conditions  in  unin- 
telligent or  stupid,  inexperienced,  or  young  and  unobservant 
animals  or  men.  But  it  cannot  yet  be  affirmed  that  in  no 
case  are  other  faculties  or  acquisitions  involved  than  intelli- 
gence, observation,  and  experience,  or  that  their  operation 
is  sufficient  to  explain  satisfactorily  all  cases  or  kinds,  or  all 
the  phenomena,  of  way-finding  in  the  lower  animals.  For 
there  are  cases,  immediately  to  be  considered  in  connection 
with  the  wonderful  phenomena  of  migration,  that  cannot  be 
properly  explained  on  the  supposition  that  ordinary  intelli- 
gence, observation,  and  experience  are  alone  involved  or 
applied. 

Migration  in  various  animals  illustrates  certain  special 
kinds  or  forms  of  way-finding  or  way-making  as  well  as  of 
way-losing,  and  it  also  serves  to  illustrate  a  number  of  other 
phenomena  of  an  even  perhaps  more  puzzling  kind. 

The  swallow  and  other  birds  make  their  way  to  the  same 
nesting  localities  year  after  year  over  thousands  of  miles  of 


UNSOLVED  PEOBLEM3.  149 

land  and  sea.  Here  we  have,  in  the  first  place,  instead  of 
individual  animals,  large  bodies  or  flocks  traversing  great 
distances.  It  may  be  that  all  members  of  the  flock  have 
previously  traversed  the  same  ground  or  distance,  or  at 
least  that  many  of  them  have  done  so,  and  that  there  are 
leaders,  specially  intelligent,  observant,  and  experienced, 
who  are  implicitly  followed  by  the  others ;  but  it  is  diflicult 
or  impossible  to  understand  what  means  the  birds  can  have 
at  sea  of  judging  of  locality,  or  how  they  can  recognise  land- 
marks across  the  whole  continent  of  Europe  and  the  whole 
length  of  the  British  Islands.  No  proper  explanation  is 
offered  as  to  the  sort  of  guidance  the  birds  have  in  crossing 
long  stretches  of  sea  or  land  by  night. 

According  to  Rae,  Mackay,  and  other  travellers  in  Arctic 
America,  such  animals  as  the  reindeer  and  buffalo,  at  certain 
seasons  or  under  certain  conditions,  travel  due  south  or  north, 
as  the  case  may  be,  the  procedure  being  invariable  in  given 
circumstances  in  the  same  species.  In  such  a  case  there  is 
no  evidence  that  any  special  locality  is  sought  for,  nor  does 
it  appear  how  far  north  or  south  the  animal  herds  wander, 
for  their  travel  is  more  like  an  indefinite  wandering  than  a 
specific  way-finding.  But  it  is  asserted  that  the  animals  at 
least  maintain  a  course  that  is  northerly  or  southerly,  or 
due  north  or  south,  while  it  is  suggested  that  they  do  so  by 
reason  of  a  sense  of  polarity. 

Immense  migrations  of  butterflies  occur  annually  in 
Central  and  South  America,  always  from  and  in  the  same 
direction,  there  being  no  return  swarms  (Belt).  The  same 
occurs  in  the  Norwegian  lemming,  in  which,  however,  the 
point  ultimately  reached  by  the  mass  of  emigrants  is  usually, 
if  not  always,  determinable.  In  their  case  it  is  the  sea,  into 
which  they  rush  headlong  and  perish  wholesale  by  drowning. 
Their  migrations  have,  moreover,  frequently  been  observed 
at  various  of  their  stages.  They  are  characterised  inter  alia 
by  the  following  singular  phenomena: — The  animals  march 
in  armies,  in  straight  lines  unswervingly,  climbing  labori- 
ously up  and  over  physical  obstacles  instead  of  simply  avoid- 
ing them,  exhibiting  a  morbid  pertinacity  or  determination 
in  adhering  to  their  own  mode  of  way-making,  committing 


150  UNSOLVED   PEOBLKMS. 

the  gravest  errors  in  relation  to  their  own  lives  and  safety 
— biting  reindeer,  for  instance,  and  getting  trod  to  death  by 
the  pain-  and  panic-struck  animals ;  entering  rivers  or  lakes 
unnecessarily,  and  so  being  drowned  in  swarms ;  and  finally 
losing  their  way  apparently  in  the  sea.  As  in  the  case  of 
the  butterflies,  none  ever  return,  and  the  exact  locality 
whence  they  come  is  equally  unknown.  In  the  lemming 
migrations  we  have  again  the  use  of  a  bee  line — a  straight 
march  apparently  towards  the  sea,  a  march  that  allows  no 
obstacles  to  stand  in  the  way.  But  while  in  many  cases  of 
bee  lines  there  is  or  may  be  some  knowledge  of  the  ground 
to  be  traversed,  of  the  point  of  departure  and  of  the  goal  or 
home,  here  there  appears  to  be  absolute  topographical  ignor- 
ance associated  with  other  singular  and  no  doubt  morbid 
forms  of  stupidity. 

Obviously  the  mode  of  way-finding  is  not  the  only  puzzle 
among  the  phenomena  of  migration,  nor  is  it  perhaps  the 
most  interesting  of  several  problems  that  suggest  themselves 
for  solution  in  connection  with  these  phenomena.  Thus  of 
the  causes  of  migration  itself,  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  certain 
of  its  results  on  the  other,  we  have  at  present  no  satisfactory 
knowledge.  As  regards  bird  migrations,  it  has  been  sug- 
gested that  their  cause  is  or  may  be — 

1.  Search  for  food  or  water,  or  for — 

2.  Breeding  ground,  or  for — 

3.  Light  or  warmth,  or  both  conjoined. 

No  doubt  some  or  all  of  these  causes  or  motives  may  be 
operative  in  certain  cases,  as  in  autumnal  southward  migra- 
tions; but  such  suppositions  do  not  account  for  all  the 
phenomena — for  instance,  for  the  periodicity,  apparent  sud- 
denness, and  imperiousness  of  the  impulse  in  the  swallow, 
salmon,  or  lemming.  There  are  migrations  on  the  small 
scale  the  reason  of  which  is  obvious  and  intelligible — for 
instance,  the  daily  or  regular  migration  of  a  hen  and  her 
chickens  in  search  of  food,  or  the  less  regular  but  equally 
familiar  migration  of  the  reindeer  to  avoid  insect  pests,  such 
as  the  gadfly.  But  it  does  not  follow  that  migrations  on  a 
larger  scale  differ  from  these  migrations  of  the  hen,  reindeer, 


UNSOLVED   PROBLEMS.  151 

or  other  animals  only  in  degree,  the  probability  being  that 
they  are  quite  different  in  kind. 

Among  the  most  remarkable  results  of  wholesale  migra- 
tions is  wholesale  destruction  of  life  in  a  great  variety  of 
ways.  In  the  lemming  alone  loss  of  life  occurs  on  the  large 
scale  by — 

1.  Hunger. 

2.  Cannibalism. 

3.  Falling  a  prey  to  feral  animals. 

4.  Provoking  fatal  injury  by  the  reindeer. 

5.  Drowning — 

as  well  as  in  other  ways ;  for  it  will  face  fire  or  other 
dangers  as  readily  as  it  does  water,  and  perish  rather  than 
avoid,  or  at  least  instead  of  avoiding,  peril  of  whatever  cha- 
racter. Here  we  have  the  element  of  will,  deliberation  ;  so 
that  in  one  sense  the  self-immolation  of  the  animals  in  the 
sea  is  to  be  considered  an  act  of  suicide  proper.  The  whole 
phenomena  have  a  morbid  character  from  the  irresistible 
impulse  which  urges  the  lemming  armies  to  set- forth — their 
utter  improvidence  as  to  maintenance  en  route,  their  inca- 
pacity to  appreciate  and  avoid  dangers,  their  suicidal  im- 
molation. Possibly  these  lemming  migrations  are  simply 
singular  illustrations  of  epidemic  morbid  impulse,  leading  to 
epidemic  suicide. 

Wholesale  destruction  of  life,  however,  is  not  confined  to 
the  migrations  of  the  lemming  or  other  animals.  Other 
illustrations  are  to  be  found  in  the  annual  or  periodical 
massacre  of  the  neuters  by  wasps  (Westwood),  or  of  the 
drones  by  bees  (Kirby  and  Spence).  In  none  of  these  cases 
can  we  explain  the  object  or  cause  of  such  dire  waste  of  life.  It 
is  easy  to  assume  and  to  say  that  a  murderous  instinct  or  impulse 
is  developed  at  certain  times  or  under  certain  circumstances 
in  the  wasp  or  bee  :  but  this  is  more  a  mode  of  describing  the 
massacre  itself,  and  the  fury,  unrelentingness,  or  merciless- 
ness  that  characterise  it,  than  an  explanation  why  and  how 
such  an  impulse  should  be  periodically  developed  or  such  a 
waste  of  life  become  necessary  or  desirable. 

Many  animals  show  a  singular  prescience  of  certain  classes 


152  UNSOLVED  PEOBLEMS. 

of  coming  events.  Thus  certain  birds  and  other  animals 
appear  to  know  when  a  given  district  or  country  is  becoming 
infected  with  epidemic  disease,  in  which  case  they  leave  or 
avoid  the  infected  district  or  country  till  the  epidemic  has 
disappeared.  This  has  been  specially  noticed  prior  to  out- 
breaks of  such  diseases  as  cholera  in  man.  In  the  autumn 
of  1874  a  paragraph  taken  from  a  foreign  (German)  journal 
called  the  '  Jardin  Zoologique,'  and  relating  to  supposed  or 
alleged  foresight  in  birds,  went  the  round  of  British  medical 
journals  and  newspapers.  It  stated  that '  a  few  days  previous 
to  the  terrible  ravages  of  cholera  in  Galicia  in  1872  all  the 
sparrows  suddenly  quitted  the  town  of  Przemysl,  and  not  a 
single  bird  returned  until  the  end  of  November,  when  the 
disease  had  entirely  disappeared.'1  'The  same  circum- 
stance was  remarked  in  Munich  and  in  Nuremberg.  During 
the  attacks  of  cholera  at  St.  Petersburg  and  Riga  in  1848, 
in  Western  Prussia  in  1849,  and  in  Hanover  in  1 850,  every 
swallow  and  sparrow  forsook  the  towns,  and  remained  ab- 
sent until  the  eradication  of  the  scourge.' 2  In  various  con- 
tributions to  the  'Natural  History  of  Cholera,'  published 
nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,3  I  gave  other  similar  in- 
stances of  the  apparent  influence  of  the  epidemic  cholera 
poison  on  a  considerable  variety  of  animals.  In  all  such 
narratives  it  is  obviously  necessary,  in  the  first  place,  to 
determine  whether  the  coincidence  is  as  stated — whether  it 
be  a  fact  that  sparrows,  swallows,  jackdaws,  or  other  birds 
or  animals  do  desert  cholera-stricken  towns  or  districts  prior 
to  the  outbreak  of  the  epidemic  in  man — and  in  the  next 
place  we  have  to  assure  ourselves  that  the  coincidence,  if 
proved,  is  not  merely  accidental,  but  has  occurred  so  fre- 
quently under  the  same  or  similar  circumstances  that  some 
relationship  of  cause  and  effect  must  be  admitted.  Assum- 
ing that  the  coincidence  has  been  indubitable  and  frequent, 
the  only  sort  of  foresight  or  prescience  that  at  present  we 
can  safely  ascribe  to  such  cautious  animals  is  of  the  same 
kind  as  that  which  enables  them  to  forecast  weather  change. 

1  '  British  Medical  Journal,'  vol.  ii.  for  1874,  p.  312. 
*  '  Daily  Review  '  (Edinburgh),  August  31,  1874. 
3  Vide  Bibliography. 


UNSOLVED  PROBLEMS.  153 

The  phenomena  are  capable  of  explanation  on  the  supposi- 
tion that  certain  other  animals  are  more  sensitive  than  man 
himself  to  the  influence  of,  to  him  unknown,  atmospheric 
conditions — a  proposition  that  has  been  stated  and  discussed 
in  the  chapter  on  '  Sensitiveness.' 

Other  illustrations,  varying  greatly  in  their  character,  of 
apparent  foresight  or  prescience  in  the  lower  animals  are  to  be 
found  in — 

1.  The  discovery  of  a  master's  thoughts  or  intentions  by 
the  dog  or  cat,  including,  for  instance,  the  discovery  of  in- 
tended murders  or  robberies. 

2.  The  discovery  of  water  supply  in  the  desert,  steppe, 
or  prairie  by  horses,  cattle,  camels,  frogs,  baboons,  as  well 
as  by  the  blacks  in  the  central  deserts  of  Australia.     Here 
again  the  so-called  instinct  of  the  lower  animal  or  savage 
accomplishes  that  which  too  often  baffles  all  the  intelligence 
of  the  white  man. 

3.  The  discovery  of  coming  ships  long  before  they  are 
sighted  by  man.     Thus  long  before  a  ship  is  sighted  off  the 
coast  of  Tahiti  she  is  signalled  by  the  simultaneous  crowing 
of  all  the  cocks  on  the  island.     '  It  is  next  to  impossible  to 
attribute  the  fact  to  a  fortuitous  coincidence,  as  it  repro- 
duces itself  regularly  without  any  exception ' ! — so  regularly 
indeed  that  pilots,  both  French  and  native,  act  upon  this 
species  of  signal  by  putting  off  to  'sea  in  their  canoes  in 
search  of  the  coming  vessels.     So  it  is  said,  but  in  such  a 
case  it  is  undesirable  to  attempt  explanation  of  the  alleged 
fact  until  the  fact  itself  is  proved  to  be  indubitable. 

4.  Premonitions   or  presentiments  of  death,  danger,  or 
misfortune,  especially  by  the  dog  (Berkeley),  cat,  and  horse. 
These  premonitions  include  a  forewarning  of  coming  earth- 
quakes on  the  part  of  the  ox,  sheep,  and  horse,  which  take 
alarm  and  betake  themselves  to  flight  and  safety.      They 
also  include  the  fear  of  the  shambles  by  oxen — a  dread  per- 
haps arising  from  the  smells  or  sights  to  which  they  are 
there  exposed.     Here  again  we  have  to  do  probably — the 
facts  being  admitted — simply  with  a  greater  acuteness  of 
certain  of  the  senses,  enabling  other  animals  much  earlier 

1  «  Constitutionnel,'  November  1874. 


154  UNSOLVED  PROBLEMS. 

than  man,  or  perhaps  even  his  instruments,  to  feel  or  hear 
the  very  slight  shaking  motion  or  rumbling  noise  that  con- 
stitutes the  first  symptom  of  the  earthquake. 

There  are  doubtless  many  kinds  of  coming  events  that  can 
be  foreseen  and  prepared  for  by  such  animals  as  the  dog — 
for  instance,  its  master  intending  to  take  a  walk  or  to  go  to 
church,  market,  fair,  or  chase.  It  may  see  its  master's  pre- 
parations, understand  their  significance,  and  make  its  own 
arrangements  or  hold  itself  ready  for  orders  from  its  master. 
And  in  some  of  the  more  puzzling  cases  above  given  similar 
keenness  of  observation,  similar  shrewdness  in  drawing 
inferences,  similar  general  intelligence,  may  be  the  fons  et 
origo  of  the  apparent  power  of  prevision. 

The  mode  or  modes  by  which  the  individuals  of  a  species 
intercommunicate  for  their  common  benefit  have  yet  in  many 
cases  to  be  determined.  We  know  a  great  deal  concerning 
the  language  of  animals,  and  we  have  indubitable  evidence 
that  they  can,  and  do,  constantly  communicate  to  each  other 
intelligence  of  all  kinds — warnings  of  dangers,  requests  for 
aid,  grievances  that  have  been  borne  and  that  require  redress, 
plans  of  foraging  or  warlike  campaigns,  and  so  forth.  But 
in  many  cases  we  are  yet  ignorant  what  is  the  precise  nature 
of  the  language  used,  by  what  means  intercommunication 
is  effected.  Thus  the  '  American  Whaleman  '  (Davis)  states 
that  'sperm  whales  have  a  means  of  communicating  with 
each  other  at  long  distances — how  long  has  never  been  de- 
termined, but  certainly  at  distances  ....  of  six  or  seven 
miles.  The  means  are  a  mystery,  but  every  whaleman  has 
observed  the  fact,  and  has  based  his  operations  in  the  chase 
upon  it.  It  has  been  suggested  that,  as  water  is  so  good  a 
conductor  of  sound,  it  may  be  sound ;  but  the  distances  are 
too  great  for  any  sound  which  the  whale  is  capable  of  making 
to  penetrate,  and  it  is  observed  that  the  telegraph  is  as 
perfect  as  ever  in  high  winds,  when  a  thousand  waves  are 
breaking.'  We  know  just  as  little,  however,  of  the  lan- 
guage used  by  dogs  to  each  other — for  instance,  when  a 
small  one  tells  a  larger  that  it  has  been  cruelly  used  by  a 
bully,  whom  it  cannot  itself  punish,  requesting  co-operation 
in  revenge ;  or  when  the  pariah  dogs  of  Damascus,  as  de- 


UNSOLVED   PROBLEMS.  155 

scribed  bj  Mrs.  Burton,  pass  on  a  stranger  under  their  escort 
from  one  dog  sentinel  to  another. 

In  many  animals  there  are  periodical  assemblages  of 
great  numbers,  sometimes  from  all  points  of  the  compass, 
of  the  object  of  which,  and  the  nature  of  the  singular  pro- 
ceedings that  frequently  characterise  them,  we  must  also  be 
said  to  be  ignorant.  Some  of  these  assemblages  and  pro- 
ceedings in  birds  are  believed  to  be  judicial,  and  their 
observers  have  described  judges,  jury,  culprit,  advocates, 
officers  of  court,  conviction,  condemnation,  and  summary 
punishment.  But  in  other  cases  such  a  supposition  does 
not  explain  the  phenomena.  Thus  a  writer  on  the  habits 
of  the  Indian  crow  says,  *  In  addition  to  their  bathing  as- 
semblages, they  have  remarkable  parliaments  ....  always 
held  in  quiet,  out-of-the-way  places,  and  always  on  the 
ground.  .  .  .  The  proceedings  are  absolutely  silent,  and 
seem  mainly  to  consist  in  small  knots  of  individuals  ex- 
hibiting their  graces  before  one  bird.  They  will  hop  round 
him  in  various  attitudes,  look  at  him  first  with  one  eye, 
then  with  the  other,  and  all  the  while  the  central  in- 
dividual will  be  supremely  indifferent  to  their  attentions. 
Perhaps  the  proceedings  will  be  varied  by  a  disconcerted 
crow  hopping  to  another  group,  there  to  exhibit  his  or  her 
charms.  This  silent  session  will  be  mainta^ied  for  an  hour, 
and  then  suddenly  break  up  with  loud  cawing,  just  as  if  the 
crows  were  being  released  from  a  disagreeable  duty  and 
were  rejoicing  in  their  escape.  I  never  could  make  out  what 
these  assemblages  are  for.  They  are  not  amatory,  for  they 
occur  as  often  after  as  before  the  breeding  season,  and  they 
are  not  judicial,  for  they  are  absolutely  silent  and  no  results 
follow.' 

There  are  many  curious  companionships  or  attachments 
between  animals  of  different  species  and  genera,  including 
those  between  the  lower  animals  and  man,  the  cause,  origin, 
or  object  of  which  does  not  appear,  if  indeed  any  intelligible 
motive  can  be  said  to  exist.  In  some  cases  there  has  been 
an  intelligible  cause,  such  as  gratitude  for  benefit,  or  desire 
for  protection  or  for  co-operation  in  defence ;  but  in  many 
others  the  only  explanation  that  suggests  itself — and  it  can 


156  UNSOLVED  PROBLEMS. 

scarcely  be  said  to  be  an  explanation  at  all  or  always — is  that 
certain  singular  attachments  or  companionships  are  deter- 
mined by  caprice.  That  such  attachments,  however,  are  of 
the  most  various  kind,  differing  probably  in  their  nature  or 
causation,  is  shown  by  the  following  examples  of  them  : — 

1.  The  sudden  attachments  of  dogs  to  human  strangers, 
whom  they  had  never  before  seen,  and  of  whom  they  conse- 
quently knew  nothing. 

2.  The  association  of  the  pilot  fish  and  shark  ;  or  of  the — 

3.  Sucking  fish  and  the  other  larger  fishes  to  which  it 
fastens  itself ;  or  of  the — 

4.  Zigzag  (bird)  and  the  crocodile. 

5.  Of  certain  fishes  and  hermit  crabs  with  certain  sea 
anemones. 

6.  Of  certain  ants  and  blind  beetles. 

7.  Of  certain  pea  crabs  with  mussels. 

8.  Of  the  fishing  frog  and  a  kind  of  eel. 

Equally  difficult  of  explanation  are  the  remarkable  anti- 
pathies or  aversions  so  frequently  shown  by  dogs  to  certain 
persons  or  things.  There  are  many  cases  in  which  dislike, 
more  or  less  decided  and  permanent,  is  accounted  for  on 
the  ground  of  previous  cruelty  by  a  given  person,  and  it  is 
quite  possible  that  certain  other  cases  are  to  be  explained  by 
cruelty  inflicted^on  some  progenitor,  in  which  case  dislike 
to  a  particular  class  of  men  may  become  hereditarily  trans- 
mitted. But,  even  accepting  such  an  explanation,  it  remains 
to  be  determined  how,  by  what  means,  dogs  become  aware 
of  the  presence  of  a  man  belonging  to  a  hereditarily  hated 
class.  A  few  years  ago  much  discussion  took  place  in  the 
columns  of '  Nature  '  as  to  the  hereditary  hatred  of  butchers 
by  dogs.  It  was  shown  inter  alia,  by  several  well-known 
authors  that  young  dogs,  that  had  never  had  any  cause  to 
dislike  fleshers  or  fleshers*  shops,  avoided,  dreaded,  or  de- 
tested both  as  thoroughly  as  older  dogs  that  might  themselves 
have  suffered  from  the  cruelty  of  butchers  when  visiting 
butchers'  shops  or  otherwise,  and  that  certain  dogs  could 
detect  a  butcher  even  when  well  washed  and  dressed,  far 
away  from  his  shop,  and  under  circumstances  that  might 
well  have  thrown  the  animals  off  their  guard.  In  order  to 


UNSOLVED  PROBLEMS.  157 

judge  of  the  force  of  this  fact  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  how 
readily  dogs  commit  errors  of  identity,  how  easily  they  fail 
to  recognise  their  own  loved  masters  under  unusual  circum- 
stances— for  instance,  as  to  mere  dress.  There  are  many  in- 
stances of  dogs  not  knowing  their  masters  when  the  latter 
were  simply  nude — as  when  bathing — or  had  changed  their 
ordinary  dress  for  a  hunting  or  fancy  costume,  or  had  ap- 
peared in  the  unexpected  role  of  burglars  or  otherwise.  The 
marked  antipathy  to  butchers,  and  the  discovery  of  butchers 
simply  as  such  in  any  company  and  under  any  circumstances, 
by  certain  dogs,  is  usually  attributed  to  the  use  of  their 
keen  powers  of  smell  or  scent ;  but  that  this  is  the  proper 
explanation  cannot  be  said  yet  to  have  been  determined. 
Other  singular  antipathies,  the  nature  or  causation  of  which 
has  also  yet  to  be  determined,  include — 

1.  That  of  European  dogs  to  negroes,  according  to  Mon- 
te iro.     His  own  dog  never  got  over  this  aversion,  one  that  is 
set  down  to  the  odour  of  the  negro's  skin,  which  is  described 
as  abominable.    But  it  may  be  due  partly  also,  or  altogether, 
to  mere  colour. 

2.  That  of  nearly  related  birds  which  *  in  their  earlier 
years  ....  are  close  companions  and  friends,'  such  as  the 
swift  and  chimney  swallow. 

It  may  be  by  smell  or  hearing,  but  it  may  also  be  by  some 
means  at  present  unknown,  that  the  dog  or  cat,  even  when 
blind  or  when  vision  is  otherwise  impossible,  discovers  the 
approach  or  presence  of  friends  or  foes,  masters  or  strangers. 
I  have  myself  repeatedly  seen  an  old  blind  cat  at  once  detect 
the  presence  in  a  room  of  a  domestic  servant  who  was  un- 
kind to  it,  and  seek  safety — from  the  dreaded  kick  apparently 
— by  immediate  flight  or  concealment.  It  was  impossible  for 
me  to  determine  from  what  I  saw  whether  smell  or  hearing 
was  chiefly  at  work,  whether  the  animal  recognised  the  girl's 
footfall  or  smelt  her  person  or  dress,  nor  had  I  the  desirable 
opportunity  of  putting  the  matter  to  the  test  by  experimental 
enquiry.  Somewhat  similar  in  character  are — 

1.  The  vague  uneasiness  felt  and  shown  by  the  dog  in 
proximity  to  a  master  whose  person  is  unseen,  or  whose  pre- 
sence is  presumably  otherwise  unknown. 


158  UNSOLVED   PROBLEMS. 

2.  The  recognition,  by  a  still   more  marked  degree   of 
mental  excitement,  of  the  body  of  a   master  or  mistress, 
though  coffined  and  brought  from  a  distance. 

3.  The  recognition  of  a  mistress's  propinquity  by  Lady 
Davies's  paroquet  on  the  occasion  of  an  experimental  visit 
paid  to  it,  when  it  could  neither  hear  her  voice  nor  see  her 
face. 

4.  Dogs  pursuing  dog-skin  sellers  (Pierquin). 

5.  The  recognition  and  avoidance  of  human  dog-stealers 
and  police  stray-dog  killers  (Low). 

6.  The  detection  of  frozen  travellers  buried  in  snow. 

7.  The  finding,  collecting,  guarding,  or  home-bringing  of 
sheep  in  the  dark  (Hogg). 

8.  The  detection  of  murderers  or  thieves ;  or  of — 

9.  Lost  or  stolen  and  buried  property  or  treasure. 

10.  A  dog,  though  blind,  becoming  aware  of  a  master's 
death  ('  Percy  Anecdotes  '). 

11.  The  distinction  of  a  dead  master  on  the  battle-field 
from  heaps  of  other  bodies,  all  mutilated  and  unrecognisable 
by  their  features  to  man. 

We  have  no  clue  at  present  to  the  nature  of  the  attraction 
that  bright,  glittering  metallic  objects  have  for  many  ani- 
mals, to  their  reasons  for  hoarding  them,  to  the  possible  use 
that  could  under  any  circumstances  be  made  of  them.  We 
know  that  rats,  starlings,  and  other  animal  thieves  pilfer 
coin,  spoons,  and  other  similar  but  heterogeneous  articles 
that  are  apparently  utterly  useless  to  them,  and  that  they 
accumulate  them  in  hoards  without  making  any  other  or 
further  use  of  them.  In  the  Vischaca  such  hoards  are  com- 
parable to  the  midden  heaps  of  primitive  man  (Cassell),  ex- 
cept in  so  far  as  concerns  the  uselessness  and  heterogeneity 
of  the  articles  accumulated,  and  those  of  the  rat  are  fre- 
quently also  both  large  and  varied  as  to  their  constituents. 
Were  it  not  that  the  most  miscellaneous  articles  are  piled  up 
in  unutilised  heaps,  we  might  conceive  their  being  rendered 
available  either  as  playthings  or  ornaments.  If  in  any  of 
these  cases  there  is  a  distinct  object  in  committing  such 
thefts,  making  such  acquisitions  of  useless  .property,  it  has 
yet  to  be  determined  what  that  object  is.  My  own  belief  is, 


UNSOLVED  PROBLEMS.  159 

as  expressed  in  other  chapters,  that  we  have  here  to  do  with 
a  sort  of  morbid  acquisitiveness  of  the  character  of  that  which 
in  man  is  known  as  kleptomania. 

And  there  are  many  other  phenomena  connected  with 
the  habits  of  animals  which  at  present  puzzle  us,  which  we 
3annot  satisfactorily  explain,  for  which  we  cannot  assign  any 
intelligible  or  obvious  motive,  cause,  or  object,  and  which 
are  really,  or  may  be,  morbid  in  their  character,  referable  to 
the  category  of  disease,  mental  or  bodily,  to  morbid  impulse, 
morbid  feeling,  morbid  thought,  morbid  will,  morbid  fancy ; 
while  there  are  many  other  phenomena  that  may  not  be, 
or  appear  to  be,  morbid,  or  the  result  of  morbid  mental 
action,  that  are  yet  unexplained  and  that  cannot  be  enume- 
rated here.  Sufficient  illustrations  as  to  number  and  variety 
have  already  been  given  to  indicate  the  kind  of  mental  phe- 
nomena, or  phenomena  connected  with  mental  action,  in  the 
lower  animals  that  constitute  puzzles  or  problems  awaiting 
solution,  and  which  will  probably  repay  careful  experimental 
enquiry. 

12 


MIND    IN    THE    LOWER 

ANIMALS: 

ITS    NORMAL    MANIFESTATIONS. 


MOBALITY  AND   EELIGION. 

CHAPTEE  I. 

THE    MOEAL    SENSE    IN    LOWER   MAN. 

PRIOR  to  any  consideration  of  the  nature  or  extent  of  the 
moral  sense  in  other  animals,  it  is  necessary  that  we  should 
study  in  man — 

1.  The  absence  of  morals,  morality,  or  conscience — appa- 
rent or  real,  comparative  or  absolute. 

2.  The  genesis  and  slow  evolution  or  gradual  development, 
and  the  cultivation,  of  the  moral  sense. 

3.  Its  manifold  perversions  in  disease  or  otherwise. 

4.  Its  decay  or  degeneration  in  age. 

Hence  it  is  incumbent  on  the  student  of  comparative 
psychology,  before  he  can  be  in  a  proper  position  to  judge 
of  the  moral  status  of  other  animals,  to  acquaint  himself 
fully  with  the  moral  history  or  status  of  the  following  races, 
groups,  or  conditions  of  mankind  : — 

1.  Early  states  or  stages  of  human  society,  as  illustrated 
by  primitive  or  savage  man. 

2.  The  infant  or  child  of  civilised  parents. 

3.  Idiots,  as  illustrating  mental  defect. 

4.  The  insane,  as  illustrating  mental  disorder. 

5.  The  criminal  classes,  as  embodying,  to  various  extents 
or  in  various  senses,  both  mental  defect  and  disorder. 

6.  What  may  well  be  called  the  vicious — though  popu- 


164  MORAL   SENSE    IN    MAN. 

larly  regarded  as  non-criminal — classes,  higher  and  lower, 
among  civilised  nations. 

7.  Eunuchs,  as  illustrating  certain  peculiarities  of  corre- 
lated physical  malformation  and  mental  degeneration. 

'    8.  The  second  childhood  of  old  age,  even  in  the  midst  of 
the  highest  civilisation. 

We  have  first,  then,  to  consider  the  moral  condition  of 
such  savage  or  primitive  races  as  the  following  : — 

I.  African. 

1.  East — tropical  or  subtropical — 

a.  Johanna  men,   Mpongwe    (Burton),   and    other 

negroes. 
6.  Dokos  of  Abyssinia  (Biichner). 

2.  West — tropical  or  subtropical. 

c.  Natives  of  Dahomey  (Ellis). 

d.  Natives  of  Angola  (Monteiro). 

e.  Suahali  tribe  of  Sierra  Leone  (Krap,  Yidal) . 
/.  Negroes  of  the  Soudan  (Biichner). 

3.  Central — tropical  or  subtropical. 

g.  Bari,  Nuehr,  Latooka,  and  other  tribes  of  the 
White  Nile  and  Albert  Nyanza  districts  (Baker). 

4.  Southern. 

h.  Bosjesmans  and  Kafirs  (Wood,  Andersson). 

II.  Asiatic. 

a.  The  '  wild  men  of  the  woods,'  the  jungle  Veddas 

(or  Weddahs)  of  Ceylon  (Hartshorne). 
6.  The  '  wild  men  of  the  woods,'  the  apelike  tribes, 

the  Samangs  or  Jacoons  of  the  Malay  Peninsula 

(Bradley), 
c.  The  Andaman  Islanders  or  Mincopies  (Biichner, 

Owen). 

III.  American. 

1.  North. 

a.  Mexican,  Apache,  and  other  Indians  (Biichner). 

2.  South. 

b.  The  *  men  of  the  woods/  or  Botokudos,  of  Brazil 

(Biichner) . 

IV.  Australasian. 

a.  The  aborigines  or  '  blacks'  of  Australia  (Biichner). 


MORAL   SENSE   IN   MAN.  165 

I.  The  Maoris  of  New  Zealand  (Colenso). 

c.  The  Fijians  (Wood). 

Among  these  and  in  many  other  savage  races  we  find — 
according  to  the  concurrent  testimony  of  travellers  and 
residents,  including  missionaries  on  the  one  hand  and 
naturalists  on  the  other — the  following  negative  or  positive 
moral  qualities  or  conditions : — 

I.  Negative. 

1.  No  sense  of  sexual  decency,  modesty,  chastity,  virtue, 
purity,  propriety,  or  shame. 

2.  No  marriage  tie  or  rite. 

3.  No  family  arrangements. 

4.  No  love — maternal,  paternal,  conjugal,  parental,  filial, 
or  fraternal. 

5.  No  idea  of  paternity  or  of  other  relationships. 

6.  No  kindness  to  or  consideration  for  each  other,  what- 
ever the  natural  or  other  relationship. 

7.  No  respect  for  woman  or  sex. 

8.  No  compassion,  pity,  sympathy  for  suffering. 

9.  No  mercy. 

\  0.  No  regret,  remorse,  self-reproach,  or  repentance. 

II.  No  gratitude  or  other  form  of  response  to  kindness 
received. 

12.  No  sense  of  guilt  or  criminality. 

13.  No  idea  of  duty  or  responsibility. 

14.  No  conception  of  right  and  wrong,  of  moral  good  or 
evil. 

15.  No  sense  of  justice  or  equity. 

16.  No  respect  for  the  rights  of  property  or  possession. 

17.  No  self-denial  or  self-control. 

18.  No  knowledge  of  truth. 

19.  No  honesty. 

20.  No  ideas  of  honour. 

21.  No  generosity,  magnanimity,  or  charity. 

22.  No  respect  for  or  obedience  to  authority  of  any  kind, 
unless  embodied  in  the  form  of  superior  power. 

II.  Positive. 

1.  Indiscriminate  or  promiscuous  association,  mingling 
or  intercourse  of  the  sexes,  and  of  all  ages. 


166  MORAL    SENSE    IN   MAN. 

2.  Lust,  lewdness,  and  debauchery. 

3.  Desertion,  including  exposure  and  mutilation  of  or 
insults  to  the  young  and  aged,  sick,  weak  or  disabled,  and 
dead. 

4.  Cruelty  to,  including  the  torture  of,  captives  or  ene- 
mies, and   pleasure   in   witnessing  the   sufferings   of  their 
victims. 

5.  Bloodthirstiness,   propensity   to    murder,    including 
cannibalism. 

6.  Dishonesty,  envy,  covetousness,  greed,  proneness  to 
theft,  robbery,  plunder  of  all  kinds  or  degrees. 

7.  Prevalence  of  perjury,  mendacity,  lying. 

8.  Selfishness. 

9.  Ingratitude,  including  the  repayment  of  good  with  evil. 

10.  Treachery,  deceit,  cunning. 

11.  Dominance  of  the  instincts,  appetites,  and  passions. 
In  describing  the  moral  condition  of  savage  races  of  man, 

some  authors  content  themselves  by  speaking  generally  of  an 
titter  or  comparative  want  of  the  moral  sense  or  of  conscience, 
while  others  specify  and  dwell  upon  the  individual  moral 
defects  that  have  arrested  their  attention. 

Of  the  first  class  of  descriptions  or  opinions  the  following 
are  illustrations :  —  Among  the  apelike  tree-men  of  the 
Malay  Peninsula  '  not  even  the  rudiments  of  morality 
seemed  to  exist'  (Bradley).  The  negro' of  Eastern  Tropical 
Africa  'has,  or  knows,  no  conscience'  (Burton).  The  natives 
of  the  White  Nile  districts  are  'inaccessible  to  all  moral 
feeling,'  while  the  Bari  '  has  not  a  moral  human  instinct ' 
(Baker).  The  Brazilian  Botokudo  is  *  quite  destitute  of 
moral  notions  ....  entirely  destitute  of  moral  ideas.  .  .  . 
Immorality  is  normal '  (Buchner). 

Of  individual  moral  defects  not  a  few  traveller-authors 
have  been  struck  by  the  absence  of  gratitude,  or  any  feeling 
or  expression  thereto  akin,  in  savages.  '  No  benefit  or  good, 
however  great  ....  is  appreciated  or  recognised  by  him. 
Such  a  thing  as  gratitude  is  quite  unknown '  in  the  West 
African  negro  (Monteiro).  'The  results  of  emancipation 
have  proved  that  the  negro  does  not  appreciate  the  blessings 
of  freedom.  Nor  does  he  show  the  slightest  gratitude  to 


MORAL    SENSE   IN   MAN.  167 

the  hand  that  broke  the  rivets  of  his  fetters.  ...  He  is 
utterly  obtuse  to  all  feelings  of  gratitude'  (Baker).  'Dr. 
Krap  was  unable  to  find  any  word  expressing  the  idea  of 
gratitude  in  the  language  of  all  the  Suahali  (Wasawahili) 
tribes — a  fact  significant  enough  as  to  the  total  absence  of 
the  moral  feeling  denoted  by  that  name'  (Vidal).  'To  a 
New  Zealander  gratitude  was  wholly  unknown.  They  have 
no  word  for  it  in  their  language — no  way  of  expressing  a 
feeling  that  never  existed  in  their  breast.  To  a  deeply 
reflecting  mind  this  sad  fact  may  appear  to  be  a  far  worse 
one  than  their  cannibalism  '  (Colenso). 

The  want  of  filial  love  is  even  more  striking  as  illustrated 
in  the  treatment  of  parents,  of  the  aged,  weak,  sick,  feeble 
or  disabled,  and  of  the  dead.  The  Fijians  '  have  not  the 
least  scruple  in  burying  a  father  alive  when  he  begins  to  be 
infirm,  and  assist  in  strangling  a  mother,  so  that  she  may 
keep  him  company.'  As  to  the  Bosjesmans  of  South  Africa 
and  the  aborigines  of  Australia,  'I  very  much  doubt  whether 
they  ever  have  possessed  the  least  idea  that  any  duty  was 
owing  to  a  parent  from  a  child.'  Among  the  North  Ameri- 
can Indians,  as  among  the  Fijians,  '  the  idea  of  being 
subject  to  their  parents  never  enters  their  heads,  still  less 
does  the  idea  of  loving  them.  It  is  the  glory  of  a  North 
American  Indian  boy,  at  as  early  an  age  as  possible,  to 
despise  his  mother  and  defy  his  father,'  while  the  young 
women  '  utterly  despise  the  elder  and  feeble  women,  even 
though  they  be  their  own  mothers.'  In  short,  filial  love 
'  barely  exists  at  all  among  them,  and  certainly  does  not 
survive  into  mature  years'  (Wood). 

On  the  other  hand,  the  'parental  love  of  a  savage  does 
not  last  longer  than  that  of  a  bird,  a  cat,  or  a  dog,  taking 
into  consideration  the  relative  duration  of  life ; '  nor,  while 
it  does  last,  is  it  of  a  very  commendable  kind.  Among 
the  Bosjesmans  and  the  Australian  blacks  'the  father  is 
just  as  likely  as  not  to  murder  his  child  as  soon  as  it  is  born 
— perhaps  rather  more  likely  than  not.  And  if  he  be  angry 
with  anyone  for  any  reason,  he  has  a  way  of  relieving  his 
feelings  by  driving  his  spear  through  his  wife  or  child,  which- 
ever happens  to  be  nearest.  Even  the  mother  treats  her  child 


168  MORAL   SENSE   IN   MAN. 

rather  worse  than  a  cow  treats  her  calf,  and  leaves  it  to  shift 
for  itself  at  an  age  when  the  children  of  civilised  parents 
can  scarcely  be  trusted  to  pass  a  quarter  of  an  hour  alone  ' 
(Wood). 

All  other  kinds  of  affection  are  naturally  at  an  equally  low 
ebb — conjugal  and  fraternal,  for  instance.  The  Angola  negro 
has  no  words  or  expressions  'indicative  of  affection  or  love;'  nor 
does  he  show  such  emotions  themselves  (Moiiteiro).  Among 
the  African  Latookas  '  there  is  no  such  thing  as  love.  .  .  . 
The  feeling  is  not  understood.  .  .  .  Women  are  so  far  ap- 
preciated as  they  are  valuable  animals.  ...  A  savage  holds 
to  his  cows  and  his  women,  but  especially  to  his  cows.  In  a 
razzia  fight  he  will  seldom  stand  for  the  sake  of  his  wives, 
but  when  he  does  fight  it  is  to  save  his  cattle'  (Baker). 
Girls  among  the  North  American  Indians  '  will  tear  out  of 
the  hands '  of  elder  women,  including  their  own  mothers, 
'  the  food  which  they  are  about  to  eat,  on  the  plea  that  old 
women  are  of  no  use,  and  that  the  food  will  be  much  better 
employed  in  nourishing  the  young  and  the  strong.  ...  If 
the  tribe  be  on  the  move,  and  those  who  are  old  and  infirm 
are  felt  to  be  hindrances,  they  settle  the  matter  by  leaving 
them  behind'  (Wood). 

Anything  like  sexual  decency  or  modesty  is  scarcely  to  be 
looked  for.  The  sexual  passion  of  the  Angola  negro  is 
'  purely  of  an  animal  description '  (Monteiro) ;  and  it  cannot 
be  said  to  be  more  than  this  in  countless  thousands  of  men 
and  women  even  in  civilised  societies.  The  ape  men  of  the 
province  of  Wellesley  in  the  Malay  Peninsula  are  '  even  more 
degraded  and  lost  to  a  sense  of  decency  than  the  lowest 
orders  of  the  animal  creation'  (Bradley).  In  certain  savage 
races  coition  frequently  takes  place  in  public  (Houzeau).  The 
Australian  black  women  are  '  destitute  of  all  sense  of  shame, 
and  never  think  of  covering  their  pudenda.'  If  not  prevented 
by  the  police  in  Australian  towns,  these  natives  '  would  daily 
violate  public  decency,  after  the  manner  of  monkeys  in  a 
menagerie.'  The  Brazilian  Botokudo,  too,  '  is  without  the 
slightest  sentiment  of  modesty,'  and  in  other  savage  tribes 
'  no  idea  of  shame  has  ever  caused  them  to  think  of  veiling 
their  sexual  parts' (Biichner).  Defcecation  is  another  prac- 


MOKAL   SENSE   IN    MAN.  169 

tice  often  of  the  most  open  or  public  kind,  not  only  in  savage 
peoples,  but  in  the  midst  of  our  own  boasted  civilisation. 
There  is  probably  not  a  town  or  village  in — not  a  part  of — our 
own  country  in  which  so  revolting  a  practice  does  not  con- 
stitute a  prevalent  public  nuisance.  Evidences  of  its  ex- 
istence as  such  obtrude  themselves  on  my  own  notice  literally 
daily. 

Want  of  honesty — a  propensity  to  steal,  utter  disregard  for 
any  rights  of  property — is  a  common  feature  in  the  character 
of  savage  man ;  and  disregard  for  truth — untruthfulness — is 
almost  an  invariable  accompaniment.  The  natives  of  Daho- 
mey '  are  not  ashamed  to  be  detected  in  lying  and  in  the 
performance  of  base  and  dishonest  actions'  (Ellis).  Of  the 
negro  of  Angola  Monteiro  says,  *  His  constant  want  of  truth 
and  his  invariable  dishonesty  are  the  result  ....  of  the 
impossibility  to  understand  that  there  is  anything  wrong  in 
being  either  a  liar  or  a  thief.'  Of  certain  African  negro 
slaves  in  the  North  American  States  a  German  traveller 
writes, « Almost  all  are  thieves  and  liars.  Hence  the  evidence 
of  a  black  has  no  validity  in  a  court  of  justice'  (Biichner). 
The  Sultan  Abdallah,  King  of  Johanna,  in  a  letter  to  Dr. 
Kirk,  H.B.M.  Consul  at  Zanzibar,  printed  in  one  of  our 
Government  Blue  Books,  remarks,  apropos  of  the  want  of 
veracity  that  characterises  his  subjects  the  Johanna  men, 
of  whom  we  have  heard  so  much  in  connexion  with  the 
various  Livingstone  relief  expeditions,  *  A  nigar  ....  was 
never  born  to  tell  the  truth.  .  .  .  Our  law  never  allows  a 
nigar  to  swear  as  witness.'  And  there  are  hosts  of  travel- 
lers, and  of  residents,  in  countries  in  which  the  '  nigger ' 
is  a  native,  who  constantly  bear  similarly  strong  testimony 
to  his  untruthfulness.  Certain  African  tribes  are  *  lying  and 
deceitful  to  a  superlative  degree'  (Baker). 

Indifference  to  human  suffering,  deliberate  cruelty  to  the 
weak  or  helpless,  enjoyment  of  the  results  of  torture  of  vic- 
tims, mercilessness  or  relentlessness,  are  also  common  attri- 
butes of  the  savage  character.  And  in  this  respect,  as  in  so 
many  others,  the  human  savage  compares  most  unfavourably 
with  the  Carnivora  or  other  animals.  The  Carnivora  prey 
on  living  victims;  but  not  only  savage — frequently  also  semi- 


170  MORAL   SENSE   IN   MAN. 

civilised  or  semi-barbarous— man  does  the  same.  For  in- 
stance, the  Hamram  hunters  of  Abyssinia  cut  steaks  out 
of  living  cattle.  The  Angola  negro  '  has  not  the  slightest 
idea  of  mercy,  pity,  or  compassion  for  suffering.  A  fellow-crea- 
ture or  animal  writhing  in  pain  or  torture  is  to  him  a  sight 
highly  provocative  of  merriment  and  enjoyment'  (Monteiro). 

The  human  child,  even  among  the  most  highly  civilised 
nations,  has  to  be  taught  by  rewards  and  punishments  what 
is  right  and  wrong,  just  as  in  the  case  of  the  lower  ani- 
mals. It  has  to  learn  to  distinguish  simply  between  what  is 
forbidden  and  what  is  permitted  long  before  it  acquires  any 
abstract  ideas  of  moral  right  or  wrong,  if  indeed  in  many 
cases  it  ever  acquires  such  ideas.  In  other  words,  its  moral 
sense  or  conscience  has  to  be  developed ;  it  is  not  innate  or 
congenital,  and,  as  will  afterwards  appear,  it  is  sometimes 
never  duly  developed.  Cruelty,  however,  is  natural  or  innate 
in  the  child.  It  appears  to  be  an  '  instinct.'  Children  have 
to  be  taught  kindness  to  and  consideration  for  each  other 
and  for  other  animals.  Mercilessness  or  pitilessness  is  a 
frequent  characteristic  of  childhood.  The  child  often  revels 
in  its  cruelty,  takes  the  same  evident  pleasure  in  torture  that 
the  Red  Indian  does  as  regards  his  victim,  the  cat  with  the 
mouse,  or  the  eagle  with  its  captive  (Houzeau).  Infants  and 
children,  indeed,  torment  animals  for  '  sport '  to  themselves  ; 
and  the  same  instincts  of  cruelty,  love  of  sport,  and  destruc- 
tiveness  break  out  at  a  later  stage  amongst  adults  of  the 
highest  ranks,  including  royalty  itself,  when  they  revel  in 
the  butchery  of  battued  pigeons  or  hares.  Children,  then, 
obviously  require  education  or  training  in  kindness,  in  jus- 
tice, in  a  sense  of  right  and  wrong,  in  the  doing  of  the 
right  and  avoidance  of  the  wrong. 

The  human  idiot  shows  the  same  conspicuous  moral  de- 
fects that  characterise  many  savage  races — man  in  a  primi- 
tive state.  He  has  no  sense  of  decency  or  modesty.  There 
is  incapacity  for  moral  as  for  mental  development.  Among 
the  mental  phenomena  presented  by  wolf  children  in  India 
are  insensibility  to  kindness,  the  absence  of  shame,  joy, 
gratitude. 

In  various  forms  of  human  insanity  moral  degradation 


MORAL   SENSE    IN   MAN.  171 

is  also  common.  There  is  a  whole  group  of  phenomena  de- 
nominated moral  insanity,  and  moral  perversion  is  perhaps 
the  most  frequent  of  the  precursors  of  insanity — that  which 
first  attracts  notice.  Just  as  in  idiots  and  imbeciles,  and 
among  many  savages,  human  insanity  in  the  midst  of  the 
highest  civilisation  is  marked  frequently  by  absence  of  all 
decency,  modesty,  chastity ;  by  incapacity,  in  certain  cases, 
of  understanding  or  conceiving  ideas  of  right  and  wrong ;  by 
propensities  to  theft,  debauchery,  and  other  vices.  In  short, 
there  may  be  said  to  be,  for  the  time,  no  moral  sense. 

A  want  or  perversion  of  the  moral  sense  characterises 
also  the  whole  criminal  class  of  the  most  highly  civilised 
peoples.  In  French  as  in  British  criminals  Dr.  Despine 
and  Dr.  Bruce  Thomson  alike  describe  even  entire  absence  of 
a  moral  sense,  with  a  singular  want  also  of  emotionalness. 
There  is  no  sense  of  duty  to  control  the  will,  the  criminal's 
acts  being  the  '  result  of  the  strongest  instinct,  appetite,  or 
passion  prevailing  at  the  time.  .  .  .  Like  brutes,  savages, 
and  idiots,  they  yield  to  natural  appetites  and  passions,  un- 
restrained and  unreproached  by  any  feeling  of  impropriety.' l 

Of  American  criminals  Dr.  Macdonald,  of  the  State 
Asylum  for  Insane  Criminals,  Auburn,  New  York,  tells  us, 
*  According  to  my  observation,  the  chief  characteristics  of 
these  cases  are  absence  of  moral  sense,  absence  of  delusions, 
while  the  intellectual  faculties,  such  as  they  are,  apparently 
remain  intact.  They  seem  to  have  the  arts  of  lying  and  theft 
developed  to  the  highest  degree,  the  former  of  which  they 
diligently  make  use  of  to  create  mischief  and  disturbance. 
They  have  bad  tempers,  which  they  not  infrequently  exhibit, 
their  paroxysms  of  passion  being  followed  by  a  sullen,  moody 
state.' 2  These  defects  or  perversions  of  the  moral  sense,  then, 
are  equally  common  in  the  insane  and  the  criminal,  and  are 
equally  familiar  to  the  physicians  of  lunatic  asylums  and  of 
prisons.  Such  phenomena  are  matters  of  daily  observation 
to  myself  in  my  professional  rounds  as  a  hospital  physi- 
cian. 

In  classes  that  are  not  distinctively  criminal,  and  some 

1  Reviewer  in  the  '  London  Medical  Record  '  of  May  1875. 
8  Seventeenth  Annual  Report  of  said  Asylum  (1877),  p.  14. 


172  MORAL    SENSE    IN   MAN. 

of  which  are  composed  of  members  not  necessarily  illiterate 
or  otherwise  unrefined,  there  is  a  low  development  or  a  great 
degradation  or  perversion  of  the  moral  sentiment.  The  evi- 
dences of  this  vary  both  in  their  nature  and  number,  accord- 
ing to  the  class  whose  habits  are  matters  of  enquiry.  Of 
modern  white  savages  those  that  approach  most  nearly  to  the 
primitive  peoples  of  lands  and  islands  beyond  the  pale  of 
civilisation  are,  for  instance,  the  cave-dwellers  of  Wick  Bay 
(Caithness-shire,  Scotland),  as  described  by  Dr.  Mitchell,  of 
Edinburgh — a  group  or  tribe  of  wandering  gipsies  (or  Sco- 
iice  tinkers).  'He  found  them  to  be  of  the  lowest  type; 
poor  weak  creatures — morally,  intellectually,  and  even  physi- 
cally. They  were  the  analogues  of  the  inhabitants  of  our 
city  closes,  and  were  not  a  whit  more  degraded.  .  .  .  Among 
them  virtue  and  chastity  feebly  existed ;  honour  and  truth 
even  more  feebly.' *  Of  a  group  of  twenty-four  persons  some 
were  wholly,  others  partially,  nude,  in  both  cases  with  *  no 
sense  of  shame.* 

On  the  other  hand,  the  recreations  of  the  miners,  col- 
liers, or  navvies  of  the  central  counties — including  their 
wife-kicking — and  of  the  aristocracy  of  the  metropolis — in- 
cluding their  treatment  of  the  lower  animals — illustrate 
eloquently  and  painfully  the  present  state  of  moral  feeling  in 
Christian  England  among  upper  and  lower  classes  alike. 
Even  in  the  higher  ranks,  that  boast  of  their  culture  or 
refinement,  tlieir  advanced  civilisation,  their  high  mental 
endowments,  their  morality  and  religion,  as  distinguishing 
them  from  what  are  contemptuously  spoken  of  as.  'the 
brutes  that  perish,'  intemperance,  the  social  evil,  debau- 
chery, fast  life,  commercial  immorality,  battue-shooting  and 
other  forms  of  the  pursuit  of  *  sport ' — nay,  the  very  wars 
that  have  devastated  in  our  own  day  portions  of  the  continent 
of  Europe  and  of  the  United  States  of  America — all  point  to 
bloodthirstiness,  lust,  selfishness,  dishonesty,  untruthfulness, 
and  other  moral  vices  as  perpetually  cropping  up  and  con- 
taminating society  even  in  its  highest  forms  of  development. 

1  Report  of  a  lecture  on '  Cave  Life  in  Scotland,'  Daily  Review  (Edinburgh) 
of  February  10,  1877. 


MORAL   SENSE    IN   MAN.  173 

Very  appropriately  does  Goldsmith,  in  his  *  Deserted  Village,' 
speaking  of  tigers  and  their  ferocity,  refer  to 

Savage  men,  more  murderous  still  than  they. 

In  short,  'man's  inhumanity  to  man'  may  well  make 
'countless  thousands  mourn'  in  senses  and  to  an  extent 
hitherto  unthought  of.  It  transcends  in  reality  all  the  con- 
ceptions of  the  missionary,  poet,  or  philanthropist.  In 
order  to  estimate  its  enormity  we  must  place  it  alongside 
the  humanity  of  the  lower  animals  to  each  other  and  to 
man  himself,  their  tyrant.  And,  considering  his  opportu- 
nities and  theirs,  his  moral  and  religious  status  and  theirs, 
we  cannot  fail  to  be  brought  to  regard  these,  in  one  sense, 
inferior  creatures — such  as  the  dog — as  morally  the  superiors 
of  hosts  of  human  beings. 

Darwin  dwells  on  the  differences  of  opinion  that  exist  as 
to  whether  the  moral  sense  is  instinctive  or  acquired.  Bain, 
Mill,  Maudsley,  and  others  have  pointed  out  its  acquired 
nature.  It  is,  in  truth,  produced  or  developed  in  man  by 
culture ;  it  decays  or  disappears  with  age ;  it  is  perverted  or 
destroyed  by  disease.  It  is  certainly  not  innate  in  primitive 
man,  in  the  civilised  child,  or  in  the  idiot.  In  none  of  these 
cases  does  it  at  first  or  under  natural  and  normal  conditions 
exist,  while  in  some  it  cannot  be  developed  by  any  degree  or 
kind  of  culture.  Nor  are  individual  moral  feelings  innate,  any 
more  than  the  aggregate  of  these  feelings.  Sexual  modesty  is 
not  an  original  virtue,  but  is,  like  conscience,  the  slow  pro- 
duct of  civilisation.  The  idea  of  marriage,  and  all  its  rela- 
tionships, is  in  the  same  position — not  innate,  but  a  gradual 
growth  under  favourable  circumstances. 

Captain  Burton  remarks,  '  It  is  time  to  face  the  fact 
that  conscience  is  a  purely  geographical  and  chronological  acci- 
dent. Where,  may  we  ask,  can  be  that  innate  and  universal 
monitor  in  the  case  of  a  people — the  Somali,  for  instance — 
who  rob  like  Spartans,  holding  theft  a  virtue ;  who  lie  like 
Trojans,  without  a  vestige  of  appreciation  for  truth ;  and  who 
hold  the  treacherous  and  cowardly  murder  of  a  sleeping 
guest  the  height  of  human  honour?'  In  short,  there  is 
'  no  sin,  however  infamous,  no  crime,  however  abominable, 


174  MOKAL   SENSE   IN   MAN. 

but  at  some  time  or  in  some  part  of  the  world  has  been,  or 
is  still,  held  in  the  highest  esteem.' 

As  regards  what  are  called  '  abstract  ideas  ' — of  duty,  for 
instance — Houzeau  and  other  authors  point  out  that  they  are 
not  natural  either  to  savage  man  or  to  the  civilised  child. 
The  notion  of  duty,  whatever  be  its  nature,  requires  in  both 
to  be  developed  by  training. 

The  moral  sense,  then,  which  has  been  so  complacently 
regarded  as  an  instinct  peculiar  to  man,  is  often  absent  in 
him.  There  is  a  want  of  it,  absolute  or  comparative,  in — 

1.  Many  savages.  4.  Many  lunatics. 

2.  Many  children.  5.  Many  criminals. 

3.  Many  idiots. 

And  this  has  constantly  to  be  borne  in  mind  in  all  ex- 
pectations or  enquiries  concerning  the  presence  or  absence 
of  the  moral  sense  in  other  animals. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE   MORAL   SENSE   IN   OTHER   ANIMALS. 

ALL  the  ordinary  definitions  of  what  is  variously  called  in 
man  the  moral  sense,  sentiment,  feeling,  faculty,  or  instinct, 
apply,  though  not  necessarily  equally,  in  the  same  degree, 
with  quite  the  same  sense  or  force,  to  an  equivalent  mental 
attribute  or  series  of  psychical  qualities  in  other  animals,  and 
which  attribute  or  qualities  in  other  animals  there  is  no 
good  reason  for  distinguishing  by  any  other  name,  simply 
because  they  are  to  be  found  in  animals  zoologically  lower 
than  man. 

Thus  the  moral  sense  in  man  has  been  defined  by  differ- 
ent classes  of  authors  to  be,  or  to  include — 

1.  A  knowledge,  appreciation,  or  sense  of  - 

a.  Right  and  wrong. 

b.  Good  and  evil. 

c.  Justice  and  injustice. 

2.  Conscience,  involving  feelings  of  approbation  or   the 
reverse  in  relation  to  ideas  of  right  and  wrong. 

3.  The  approval  of  what  is  conducive  to  well-being,  and 
the  disapproval  of  the  reverse. 

4.  Sense  of  duty  and  of  moral  obligation. 

5.  Appreciation  of  the  results  of  honesty  and  dishonesty. 

6.  Virtue  or  virtuousness,  including  especially  such  moral 
virtues  as — 

Conscientiousness.  Charity. 

Scrupulousness.  Mercy. 

Integrity.  Magnanimity. 

Compassion.  Disinterestedness. 

Benevolence.  Chastity. 

Fidelity.  Modesty. 
13 


176  MORAL   SENSE 

There  is  not  one  of  these  moral  qualities  that  is  not 
possessed,  sometimes  in  a  high  degree,  by  certain  of  the 
lower  animals,  and  more  especially  the  dog ;  and  there  are 
many  authors,  who  have  been  desirous  of  drawing  marked 
psychical  distinctions  between  man  and  other  animals,  who 
have  nevertheless  felt  themselves  compelled  by  the  evidence 
of  facts  to  concede  to  these  other  animals,  or  certain  of  them, 
the  possession  of  morality  akin  to  that  of  man.  Agassiz,  for 
instance,  grants  them  morals ;  Froude  speaks  of  their  prin- 
ciples of  morality  ;  Brodie  refers  to  the  moral  sentiments  as 
occurring  in  gregarious  animals  ;  Shaftesbury  allows  to  them 
a  sense  and  practice  of  moral  rectitude ;  Watson  gives  in- 
stances of  their  moral  feeling,  and  Wood  of  their  conscience. 
And  certain  animals  have  even  been  described  as  possessing 
a  moral  law  and  codes  of  morals. 

The  dog,  at  least,  frequently  exhibits  a  knowledge  of 
right  and  wrong,  making  a  deliberate  choice  of  the  one  or  the 
other,  perfectly  aware  of  and  prepared  for  the  consequences  of 
such  a  selection.  The  animal  has  occasionally  the  moral 
courage  to  choose  the  right  and  to  suffer  for  it,  to  bear  wrong 
rather  than  do  it  (Elam).  Not  only  does  this  frequently 
noble  animal  know  the  right,  but  it  dares  to  do  it,  enduring 
the  expected,  the  inevitable,  consequent,  suffering.  One  of 
the  many  evidences  that  the  dog  is  sensible  of  right-doing  is 
to  be  found  in  the  familiar  fact  that  when  it  performs  an 
action  which  to  it  seems  meritorious,  or  which  it  has  reason 
to  believe  its  master  will  deem  so — when  it  saves  a  life,  or 
successfully  defends  a  trust,  or  resists  some  great  temptation 
— it  looks  at  once  for  some  sign  of  the  said  master's  appro- 
bation, perhaps  for  some  reward.  There  is  both  the  self- 
approbation  or  self-satisfaction  of  the  mens  conscia  recti  and 
an  expectation  of  man's  approval.  The  animal  is  gratified 
if  such  approval  is  in  any  form  vouchsafed,  disappointed  if  it 
be  withheld. 

It  must  also  distinguish  between  the  right  and  the  ex- 
pedient— what  would  be  most  for  its  own  interest  to  do.  In 
other  words,  it  is  just  as  apt  as  man  is,  and  not  more  so, 
to  take  a  selfish  view  of  all  affairs — to  consider  how  they 
are  likely  to  affect  its  own  personal  interests.  The  choice 


IN   OTHER  ANIMALS.  177 

that  is  finally  made  between  the  right,  the  expedient,  and 
the  wrong  is  determined  by  a  variety  of  considerations — 
by  conflicting  emotions,  by  the  balancing  of  probabilities 
and  inclinations,  by  the  degree  or  kind  of  temptation,  by 
the  presence  or  absence  of  witnesses,  especially  human,  by 
other  specialities  of  an  animal's  position,  by  the  nature  and 
extent  of  its  moral  training,  by  the  character  of  the  rewards 
and  punishments  offered  on  previous  occasions.  In  the  dog 
there  is  sometimes  obviously  the  same  kind  of  conflict  and 
collision  between  virtue  and  selfishness,  between  a  sense  of 
what  is  right — which  is  too  generally  also  what  is  painful, 
what  calls  for  terrible  self-denial  and  suffering,  including 
the  physical  pangs  of  hunger  and  thirst,  as  well  as  the 
moral  pangs,  say,  of  unsatisfied  revenge — and  a  sense  of 
what  is  simply  pleasant  and  profitable. 

Temptation  frequently  begets  in  the  dog,  cat,  and  other 
animals  the  same  kind  of  mental  or  moral  agitation,  and  the 
same  sort  of  result,  as  in  man.  Sometimes  we  can  see — in 
the  dog,  for  instance — the  whole  play  of  the  animal's  mind 
— the  battle  between  its  virtuous  and  vicious  propensities, 
its  promptings  to  the  right  and  its  endeavours  to  stick  by 
the  right,  its  longing  for  the  wrong — for  the  titbit,  which 
it  knows  it  would  be  improper  to  steal — and  the  final 
triumph  either  of  virtue  or  temptation.  The  poor  animal, 
knowing  or  feeling  the  weakness  of  the  flesh,  sometimes  has 
the  moral  strength,  the  force  of  character,  the  good  sense,  to 
avoid  temptation  altogether.  But  dogs,  like  men,  are  apt  to 
have  the  most  trying  temptations  thrust  unexpectedly  upon 
them,  and  then  comes  the  tug  of  war  of  the  appetites  and 
passions — the  moral  turmoil  that  may  make  shipwreck  of  or 
that  may  strengthen  virtue.  Sometimes,  then,  by  the  dog, 
as  by  the  man,  temptation  is  successfully  resisted  after  per- 
haps a  series  of  protracted  and  painful  moral  struggles  that 
have  been  very  apparent  to  the  onlooker.  Unfortunately, 
however,  equally  in  dog  and  man,  the  resistance  of  tempta- 
tion is  less  common  by  far  than  non-resistance  or  non- 
success  in  resistance,  the  result  of  which  is  various  forms  or 
degrees  of  wrong-doing. 

But  in  the  dog,  cat,  and  other  animals  this  wrong-doing 


178  MORAL  SENSE 

is  accompanied  by  a  perfect  consciousness  or  conception  of 
the  nature  of  their  behaviour.  They  are  quite  aware  of 
being  engaged  in  actions  that  will  bring  inevitable  punish- 
ment, which  penalty,  moreover,  they  are  sensible  they  de- 
serve. Miss  Buist  gives  the  history  of  a  pet  canary  that  was 
given  to  prancing  about  on  her  piano  keys,  and  that  knew 
it  was  wrong  in  so  doing. 

Abundant  evidence  of  a  consciousness  of  wrong-doing  is 
to  be  found  either  generally  in  the — 

1.  Pricks,  stings,  or  pangs  of  conscience. 

2.  The  various  expressions  of  a  sense  of  guilt — for  instance, 
the— 

a.  Sneaking  gait. 

6.  Depressed  head,  ears,  and  tail. 

c.  Temporary  disappearance. 

d.  Permanent  absconding ;  desertion  of  home  and 

master. 

3.  The  multiform  exhibitions  of  contrition,  regret,  repent- 
ance, self-reproach,  remorse — 

Or  more  specifically  in  the — 

4.  Efforts   at  reconciliation   and   pardon,   including  the 
giving  of  peace  offerings. 

5.  Various  forms  of  making  atonement. 

6.  Concealment  of  crime  or  its  proofs. 

7.  Artifices  for  escaping  detection  or  conviction. 

8.  Non-resentment  of  punishment. 

9.  Sensitiveness  to  reproof,  or  even  under  mere  reference 
to  former  delinquency. 

10.  Punishment  of  offenders  by  and  among  each  other. 

Conscience  is  frequently  as  severe  a  monitor  in  other  ani- 
mals as  in  man,  its  reproaches  as  stinging  and  hard  to  be 
borne,  its  torments  sometimes  intolerable.  We  may  speak 
quite  correctly,  for  instance,  of  the  conscience-stricken  animal 
thief,  the  cat  or  dog  caught  in  the  act  of  pilfering  from  the 
larder.  The  signs  of  detected  and  acknowledged  guilt  are 
the  same  in  kind  as  would  be  exhibited  under  parallel  cir- 
cumstances by  the  human  child.  The  animal,  like  the  child, 
if  rendered  sensitive  by  previous  moral  training,  shows  un- 
mistakably its  consciousness  of  delinquency.  Its  look  and 


IN   OTHER  ANIMALS.  179 

demeanour  alike  eloquently  bespeak  its  sense  of  detection 
and  disgrace.  It  understands  its  master's  accusation  as 
conveyed  by  eye,  tone,  word,  gesture,  and  it  either  makes 
instant  effort  to  escape  the  punishment  which  it  knows  it 
has  incurred  and  deserved,  or,  if  escape  be  hopeless,  it,  as 
calmly  as  may  be,  awaits  the  said  punishment,  and  does  not 
resent  it,  as  it  would  did  it  feel  it  to  be  unmerited.  A  bitch 
having  once  eaten  a  quantity  of  shrimps  intended  for  her 
master's  dinner  sauce,  had  only  to  be  asked  ever  after, 
*  Who  stole  the  shrimps  ?  '  to  cause  her  to  take  to  ignomi- 
nious flight — ears  and  tail  down — going  to  bed,  *  refusing 
to  be  comforted  ....  the  picture  of  shame  and  remorse,' 
while  we  are  told  '  she  never  stole  again '  ('  Animal  World '). 

A  young  dog  having  committed  some  offence  against  the 
established  rules  of  his  master's  household,  'after  we  had 
shaken  our  heads  at  him  and  turned  away  ....  although 
he  must  have  been  very  hungry,  would  not  touch  his  food,  but 
sat  close  to  the  door,  whining  and  crying,  till  we  made  it  up 
with  him  by  telling  him  he  was  forgiven  and  taking  his 
offered  paw,  when  he  ate  his  supper  and  went  quietly  to 
bed.'  Another  dog,  '  if  he  has  done  anything  wrong,  comes 
up  looking  very  much  ashamed  of  himself  and  voluntarily 
offers  his  paw '  (Wood) .  Here  we  have  decided  efforts  at 
propitiation  of  an  offended  master  or  mistress,  and  after  the 
fashion  of  man's  reconciliations  by  the  shaking  of  hands,  as 
nearly  as  the  dog  can  imitate  this  arrangement.  There  are 
cases  in  which  regret  or  remorse  leads  to  the  restoration  of 
stolen  goods.  A  dog  that  had  murdered  a  duck  was  caught 
in  the  act  of  burying  its  dead  body — that  is,  of  concealing  the 
evidences  of  his  crime.  '  So  deeply  was  his  conscience  pricked 
that  when  he  found  himself  arrested  by  a  bush  he  ran  the 
risk  of  dying  of  cold  and  hunger  rather  than  allow  himself  to  be 
discovered  '  (Wood).  When  a  large,  magnanimous,  powerful 
dog — for  instance,  of  the  Newfoundland  breed — has  allowed 
impulse  or  passion  to  hurry  it  into  some  rash  act,  such  as 
killing  or  too  severely  punishing  some  puny  pug  that  has 
been  merely  forward,  impudent,  or  annoying,  it  frequently 
and  eloquently  expresses  its  shame,  regret,  or  remorse. 

As  in  man,  conscience  or  conscientiousness  sometimes 


180  MORAL  SENSE 

has  its  strange  or  striking  vagaries,  eccentricities,  or  incon- 
sistencies in  other  animals.  Thus  a  retriever  that  would 
himself  touch  no  food  belonging  to  his  master,  yet  offered  no 
objection  to  theft  of  the  same  food  by  a  cat,  nor  did  he  decline 
to  accept  a  share  of  her  plunder  (Wood). 

The  sense  of  guilt  and  its  expression  is  more  fully  dis- 
cussed in  the  chapters  on  f  Crime '  and  on  '  Language.' 

Not  only  do  animals  feel  their  own  wrong-doing,  but  they 
appreciate  evil  or  evil  deeds  in  their  young  and  in  their  fel- 
lows, including  other  genera  and  species,  and  man  himself. 
They  show  this,  for  instance  (l),by  the  punishment  of  offen- 
ders, if  not  of  offences,  as  well  as  (2)  by  the  prevention  of 
threatened  wrong-doing  or  the  defence  of  the  wronged,  or 
(3)  by  the  resentment  or  revenge  of  injury  or  injustice  of 
any  kind.  Thus  various  animals  resent  and  revenge  the 
wrongs  committed  by  man  not  only  on  themselves  or  their 
fellows,  but  even  on  brother  man ;  and  this  sense  of  wrong 
or  injury  inflicted  upon  others  leads  sometimes  to  their 
defence  of  man  against  his  fellow-man.  A  case  happened 
recently  in  Ireland  of  a  pet  cow  that  defended  its  mistress 
against  the  ill  usage  of  its  master,  its  mistress's  husband ; 
and  many  instances  have  been  recorded  of  the  dog,  elephant, 
and  horse  doing  similar  kindnesses  to  their  human  favourites. 
It  ought  to  be  not  a  little  humiliating  to  man's  pride  that 
the  so-called  '  lower '  animals  have  so  frequently  to  act  as 
mediators  in  human  quarrels — to  defend  lordly  man  against 
his  own  species. 

In  the  same  sense  in  which  it  can  be  said  that  the  dog 
and  other  animals  are  endowed  sometimes  with  a  perception 
of  wrong,  it  may  also  be  said  that  they  acquire  a  sense  of  the 
illegality  of  certain  not  only  of  their  own  actions,  but  also  of 
man's.  Human  tribunals  have  apparently  regarded  sheep- 
stealing  dogs  as  conscious  of  the  illegality  of  their  deeds,  as 
sensible  of  the  nature  of  their  nefarious  employment,  as  aware 
of  the  character  of  their  offence  or  crime,  as  alive  to  the 
chances  of  detection  and  of  the  necessity  for  secrecy  or  con- 
cealment, for  nocturnal  operations,  for  the  avoidance  of  being 
found  associated  with  any  of  the  evidences  of  guilt,  as  feeling 
that  they  deserve  punishment  and  that  they  will  receive  it 


IN  OTHER  ANIMALS.  181 

on  capture  or  conviction.  These  tribunals  have,  in  other 
words,  recognised  the  power  the  guilty  animals  have  pos- 
sessed of  selecting  between  the  right  and  the  wrong,  and  of 
their  having  chosen  the  latter  with  full  knowledge  of  con- 
sequences. And  in  all  these  respects  human  judges  have 
so  far  formed  correct  conclusions  or  decisions,  though,  as 
is  pointed  out  in  the  chapter  on  'Moral  Responsibility,' 
they  have  erred  in  forgetting  that  the  criminality  in  such 
cases  has  been  the  evil  fruit  of  man's  education  of  his  animal 
accomplices.  The  dogs  of  the  brigand,  smuggler,  or  poacher, 
like  those  of  the  sheep-stealer,  display  a  knowledge  of  the 
illegality  of  the  operations  in  which  they  are  habitually 
engaged.  They  take  all  means  of  avoiding  custom-house 
officers  or  gamekeepers,  deliberately  making  use  of  all  kinds 
of  deception ;  but  to  all  this  they  are  trained  by  man. 

No  doubt  what  is  popularly  spoken  of  as  a  sense  of  right 
or  wrong,  of  legality  or  illegality,  in  the  lower  animals  may, 
or  will  if  strictly  analysed,  be  reduced  to  a  distinction  be- 
tween what  is  forbidden  and  what  is  permitted  by  man,  who 
is  recognised  as  a  sufficient  lawgiver  and  administrator — 
what  will  bring  punishment  on  the  one  hand  and  reward  on 
the  other.  But  this  is  just  the  kind  of  feeling  as  to  right 
and  wrong,  legality  and  illegality,  that  exists  in  the  savage 
adult,  that  is  generated  at  first  in  the  civilised  child,  that  is 
exhibited  (if  at  all)  in  the  criminal,  the  lunatic,  or  the  idiot. 
It  cannot  be  truthfully  affirmed  that  abstract  or  refined  ideas 
of  moral  good  and  evil  are  common  to  all  ranks  of  men, 
or  are  innate  even  in  civilised  man.  In  our  brother  man, 
and  with  all  the  help  that  spoken  and  written  language  can 
give  us,  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  difficulty,  frequently 
the  utter  impossibility,  of  knowing  whether  any  and  what 
conceptions  exist  as  to  right  or  wrong,  good  or  evil,  justice 
or  injustice,  honesty  or  dishonesty.  It  need,  therefore,  be 
no  matter  of  surprise  if  we  cannot  ascertain  or  demonstrate 
the  presence  or  absence  of  any  sort  of  definite  conceptions 
on  such  subjects  in  the  dogs,  fowls,  or  other  domestic  ani- 
mals that  are  so  constantly  under  man's  observation.  Prac- 
tically, however,  as  has  been,  and  will  be  further  (in  the 
sequel)  -seen,  as  practically  as  in  whole  races  of  man,  the 


182  MOfiAL  SENSE 

dog  and  other  animals  give  unquestionable  evidence  that 
they  know  what,  according  to  man's  law  to  them,  is  right  and 
wrong,  and  they  prefer  to  do  the  one  or  the  other  according 
to  their  individuality  and  the  character  of  their  previous 
moral  training. 

Monkeys  and  other  animals  sometimes  show,  as  much  as 
does  the  human  child,  a  very  decided  enjoyment  of  forbidden 
pleasures,  not  only  knowing  that  they  are,  but  because  of 
their  being,  interdicted. 

The  dog,  horse,  mule,  elephant,  and  other  animals  have 
frequently  a  distinct  sense,  feeling,  or  knowledge  of  duty, 
trust,  or  task ;  and  this  not  only  as  regards  their  own  per- 
sonal obligations,  but  in  so  far  as  duty  of  various  kinds  is 
attachable  to  other  individuals  of  the  same  species,  or  to 
those  of  other  genera  and  species,  including  man  himself — 
when,  for  instance,  such  duty  of  man's  has  any  immediate 
reference  to,  or  connection  with,  themselves.  In  other  words, 
they  have  clear  conceptions  of  their  own  duties,  and  of  the 
duties  of  others,  including  man,  in  relation  to  them. 

The  discharge  of  their  own  duties,  which  in  many 
instances  are  self-imposed,  involves,  or  is  characterised  by — 

1.  An  understanding  of  the  nature  of  the  work  to  be  exe- 
cuted— of  the  duty  required,  for  instance,  by  man. 

2.  Conscientiousness  in  the  discharge  of  duty,  which  again 
implies — 

a.  Sterling  honesty  and  fidelity. 
6.  Willingness  or  zeal. 

c.  Regularity,  including  perseverance,  patience,  and 

method. 

d.  Accuracy,  based  on  high  intelligence. 

The  working  elephant  requires  that  the  nature  of  its  work 
should  be  explained  to  it,  to  as  great  an  extent  as  possible 
demonstratively — by  illustration.  It  very  quickly  and  readily 
comprehends  what  it  is  that  man  wishes  and  expects  it  to  do, 
and  it  very  soon  learns  to  execute  its  task  without  supervision, 
bringing  to  the  discharge  of  its  duty  so  much  zeal  or  hearti- 
ness, so  much  conscientiousness,  that  it  frequently  displays 
an  obvious  dread  of  failure  in,  or  of  inability  for,  the  due  ful- 
filment of  its  trust,  even  when  the  causes  of  such  failure  or 


IN   OTHER  ANIMALS.  183 

incompetency,  where  they  exist,  scarcely  come  within,  or  are 
altogether  beyond,  the  animal's  control.  There  are  such 
things  in  the  dog,  elephant,  horse,  and  other  animals  as  ex- 
cess of  zeal,  wrong  ideas  of  duty,  mistakes  in  the  mode  of 
discharging  it,  and  morbid  conscientiousness,  the  discussion  of 
which,  however,  belongs  rather  to  such  chapters  as  those  on 
'Error*  and  on  *  Mental  Derangement'  or  its  causation.  Man's 
cruel  taunts  not  unfrequently  lead  the  too  willing  horse  or  ele- 
phant to  the  attempting  of  tasks  for  which  their  strength,  or 
lack  thereof,  does  not  qualify  them,  and  death  in  or  from  such 
attempts  is  the  occasional  result ;  while  the  dog  sometimes 
carries  its  honesty  or  fidelity  in  the  defence  of  a  trust  to  a 
ridiculous  extent,  or  displays  qualities,  noble  in  themselves, 
under  absurd  circumstances.  The  dog's  anxiety  to  learn  his 
duty  has  been  pointed  out  by  the  Ettrick  Shepherd,  who  thus 
writes  of  his  celebrated  Sirrah : — '  As  soon  as  he  discovered 
that  it  was  his  duty  [to  turn  sheep],  and  that  it  obliged  me, 
I  can  never  forget  with  what  anxiety  and  eagerness  he  learned 
his  different  evolutions.' 

Duties  that  are  voluntarily  assumed,  that  are  frequently  of 
an  irksome  and  even  unnatural  kind,  are  sometimes  discharged 
in  the  most  admirable  way — for  instance,  by  self-constituted 
foster-parents  that  have  adopted  orphaned  or  deserted  young, 
often  belonging  to  other  genera  and  species,  and  even  to 
natural  enemies. 

Quite  as  frequently,  perhaps,  parental  or  maternal  duties, 
of  a  natural  and  important  character,  are  delegated  or  left  to 
any  other  animal  possessed  of  a  sufficiently  powerful  charity 
or  compassion,  a  sufficiently  strong  maternal  or  parental 
'  instinct.'  The  duties  of  parentage  or  otherwise  may  be  simply 
left  undischarged,  without  the  slightest  regard  to  the  results 
of  such  neglect ;  every  opportunity  may  be  taken  of  shirking 
work  that  is  disagreeable,  or  a  task,  of  whatever  nature,  is 
executed  in  a  very  perfunctory,  perhaps  merely  nominal, 
way.  There  is,  in  other  words,  in  some  cases  just  as  decided 
an  insensibility  to  the  claims  of  duty,  just  as  marked  a  cold 
indifference  to  its  discharge,  as  in  other  cases  there  is  con- 
scientiousness and  kindliness.  It  is  only  fair,  however,  to 
bear  in  mind  that  such  apathy,  frequently  of  an  obviously 


184  MORAL  SENSE 

unnatural  character,  is  one  of  the  common  results  of  mental 
defect  or  disorder,  just  as  it  is  too  frequently  in  man  himself. 

The  dog  frequently  makes  duty  and  its  discharge  para- 
mount to  all  other  considerations.  To  it  are  sacrificed  even 
revenge,  on  the  one  hand,  or  temptations  to  the  pursuit  of 
game,  or  to  access  to  food,  on  the  other.  Death  itself  is 
sometimes  preferred  to  the  desertion  of  a  trust  or  charge 
(Watson).  Many  a  dog  restrains  all  its  natural  propensities 
under  a  sense  of  duty  and  responsibility.  When  *  on  duty,' 
entrusted  with  a  message  from  a  master,  it  very  literally 
places  '  business  before  pleasure  ; '  its  self-control  may  even 
prevent  desirable  or  necessary  self-defence. 

Whether  it  be  from  a  sense  of  justice,  of  duty,  or  of 
conscientiousness,  it  is  a  fact  that  certain  working  dogs  and 
other  animals  not  only  attend  faithfully  to  their  own  duties, 
but  see  that  their  companions  give  equal  attention  to  theirs. 
They  exact  duty  or  work  from,  or  enforce  it  in,  their  col- 
leagues (Watson). 

Certain  of  the  lower  animals  have  a  very  decided  sense  of 
justice  and  injustice,  of  equity  or  fairness  and  the  reverse,  as 
is  more  fully  pointed  out  in  the  chapters  on  '  Law  and  Punish- 
ment '  and  '  Crime  and  Criminality.'  Thus  the  dog,  horse, 
mule,  ass,  camel,  elephant,  and  other  working  animals  have 
a  feeling  that  '  the  labourer  is  worthy  of  his  hire ;'  that  they 
deserve  a  certain  meed  of  praise,  credit,  or  reward — a  certain 
return  in  food  and  drink,  in  domestic  comfort  or  personal 
attention — for  service  rendered.  There  is  a  clear  recognition 
of  the  value  of  service — a  knowledge  of  personal  deserts. 
Hence  they  so  frequently  exhibit  a  sore  sense  of  ill-requital 
of  hard  labour  or  of  self-sacrifice.  Punishment  which  they 
know  to  be  undeserved  they  resent — sometimes  dangerously 
to  man — and  in  doing  so  they  discriminate  and  estimate  man's 
injustice. 

The  bread-buying  dog  does  very  much  the  same  thing — 
detects  and  protests  against  man's  unfair  dealing  when,  offer- 
ing its  penny  for  a  roll,  a  baker  tries,  waggishly  or  otherwise, 
to  cheat  it  by  giving  it  something  of  inferior  value  or  re- 
fusing it  a  quid  pro  quo  at  all. 

There  must  further  exist,  in  certain  animals,  some  per- 


IN  OTHER  ANIMALS.  185 

ception  of  the  distinction  between  spoken  as  well  as  acted 
truth  and  falsehood,  fact  and  fiction ;  for  we  are  told,  for 
instance,  that  the  parrot  sometimes  not  only  detects,  but 
denounces  with  the  utmost  indignation,  man's  verbal  false- 
hoods ('  Animal  World ') .  On  the  other  hand,  one  of  the  occa- 
sionally base  or  bad  purposes  to  which  the  same  bird  applies 
its  wonderful  gift  of  speech  is  mendacity :  so  that  it  is 
capable  at  once  of  '  telling  lies '  itself  and  of  detecting  and 
reprimanding  falsehood  in  man. 

A  certain  sentiment  of  decency,  modesty,  or  propriety 
occurs  in  various  social  animals,  illustrated  as  it  is  by — 

1.  Their  sexual  bashfulness  and  chastity. 

2.  Their  care  of  the  dead,  including  the — 

3.  Use  of  dying-places  and  cemeteries. 

4.  Their  employment  of  latrines  or  their  equivalents. 

It  has  to  be  remarked  that  the  moral  virtues  are  illustrated 
mainly  by  or  in  those  animals  that  have  directly  or  indirectly 
received  their  moral  training  from  man — such  animals  as  the 
dog,  elephant,  and  horse.  As  a  general  rule — to  which  there 
are  exceptions  both  in  man  and  other  animals — the  human 
child  and  the  young  animal  can  equally  be  educated  both 
to  distinguish  and  do  the  right.  In  the  formation  of  their 
character  moral  virtue  may  be  made  to  dominate  over  moral 
vice,  though  it  is  probably  impossible  in  either  case  to  extin- 
guish the  latter.  Moral  perfectibility  may  be  aimed  at, 
though  it  cannot  be  attained  ;  but  the  degree  of  moral  excel- 
lence attainable  is  such  in  other  animals,  as  in  the  child,  that 
it  should  stimulate  man  to  put  forth  all  efforts  in  the  moral 
training  of  both.  This,  however,  is  a  subject  that  pertains 
more  properly  to  the  chapters  on  « Education.' 


CHAPTER  ni. 

MORAL   MERIT   AND   DEMERIT. 

THERE  are  many  worthy  people  who,  while  they  are  compelled, 
by  the  evidence  of  facts,  to  admit  that  certain  animals 
perform  actions  that  from  man's — that  is,  their  own — point  of 
view  must  be  regarded  as  beneficent,  deny  that  such  actions 
in  other  animals  are  motived  by  the  same  moral  or  mental 
influences  that  operate  in  man.  While  making  no  objection 
to  attributing  to  the  lower  animals  the  capacity,  for  instance, 
for  any  kind  or  degree  of  self-sacrifice,  they  refuse  to  associate 
therewith  any  sort  of  moral  merit ;  and,  as  a  corollary,  they 
do  not  recognise  demerit  in  actions  of  an  opposite  kind.  They 
resolutely  oppose,  in  a  great  variety  of  ways,  all  supposition  of 
moral  merit  in  the  actions  of  the  lower  animals  just  because 
they  are  lower  animals,  and  on  no  other  ground  apparently. 
Thus— 

1.  They  deny  that,  in  actions  involving  self-sacrifice,  the 
animals  that  sacrifice  themselves  have  any  true  consciousness 
or  perception  of  the  nature  of  their  acts ;  that  such  actions 
are  voluntary  and  deliberate ;  or  that  they  are  the  result  of 
anything  like  human  motive. 

2.  By  regarding  the  lower   animals  as  mere  automata, 
they  get  rid  of  all  such  difficulties,  referring  self-sacrifice  and 
other  beneficent  actions  to  '  instinct.' 

3.  They  attempt  all  manner  of  restricted  definitions  of  such 
terms  as  morality,  religion,  motive,  and  so  forth,  so  as,  if 
possible,  to  exclude  all  other  animals  from  participation  in 
attributes  which  they  fondly  regard  as  peculiar  to  man. 

But  such  objectors  to  granting  to  other  animals  credit  or 
merit  for  actions  that  in  man  would  meet  with  the  highest 


MORAL  MERIT.  187 

praise  are  apparently  ignorant  of  the  dilemma  in  which  they 
place  themselves  by  all  such  futile  efforts  to  distinguish  the 
lower  animals — morally  or  mentally — from  man.  In  so  far 
as  they  make  good  their  case  against  other  animals — and  it 
is  quite  easy  to  make  out  a  good  case,  seeing  that  there  is  so 
much,  on  the  one  hand,  that  can  never  be  proved,  and,  on  the 
other,  that  can  never  be  disproved — they  make  out  an  equally 
good  case  against  countless  numbers  of  their  fellow-men.  For 
the  general  scope  of  the  present  work  is  to  show  how  superior 
certain  animals  are  to  whole  races  or  classes  of  mankind, 
both  morally  and  mentally,  and  how  essentially  alike  moral 
and  mental  influences  and  operations  are  in  man  and  other 
animals. 

Even  in  man,  and  in  regard  to  the  display  of  some  of  his 
supposed  highest  moral  virtues,  it  is  dimcult,  if  not  impossible, 
always  to  determine  the  presence  or  degree  of  moral  merit. 
Thus  self-devotion  may  be  the  result  of  free  choice,  of  mere 
custom,  of  imitation,  of  impulse,  of  compliance  with  the 
inevitable — that  is,  of  compulsion  (Houzeau).  In  other  words, 
self-sacrifice  is  not,  even  in  man,  necessarily  associated  with 
moral  merit  of  any  kind  or  degree.  The  man  or  woman  who 
commits  impulsively  what  is  called  a  heroic  act  of  self-sacrifice 
may  have  done  so  without  prior  consideration  as  to  the  nature 
of  the  act,  without  reflection  as  to  its  results,  without  delibera- 
tion. In  all  probability  reflection,  deliberation,  or  considera- 
tion would  have  deterred,  not  incited,  to  action ;  would  have 
begotten  a  selfish  over- cautiousness  rather  than  a  generous, 
uncalculating  rashness. 

It  is  an  act  of  self-sacrifice  on  the  part  of  a  female  ant 
when  she  destroys  the  means  of  coition  in  order  to  devote 
herself  to  the  rearing  of  the  young  of  other  individuals  of  the 
species.  It  is  impossible,  however,  in  such  a  case  to  prove 
the  presence  or  operation  of  consciousness,  or  knowledge  on 
her  part,  of  the  nature  and  object  of  her  act — of  intention  or 
purpose,  of  choice  of  celibacy,  of  reasoning  or  reflection,  of 
moral  merit.  The  phenomenon  requires  thorough  investigation 
to  determine  whether,  in  the  first  place,  for  instance,  it  is 
common  to  all  the  females  of  a  certain  rank  or  caste  (Houzeau). 
The  sacrifice  of  individuals  for  the  general  or  public  good  in 


188  MOBAL  MEEIT 

ant  expeditions  is,  however,  distinctly  voluntary  (Houzeau), 
as  is  their  persistent  fighting  or  working  when  wounded. 
For  these  phenomena  are  not  uniform  or  invariably  exhibited; 
wholesale  self-sacrifice  is  exhibited  only  upon  important, 
exceptional  occasions — e.g.  when  the  nest  is  threatened 
(Houzeau). 

Rescue  from  peril — of  man,  or  of  each  other — whatever  the 
risk  to,  and  frequently  at  the  sacrifice  of,  their  own  lives — 
must  present  a  difficulty  to  those  who  would  explain  away  all 
the  magnanimous  actions  of  the  lower  animals  by  referring 
them  to  '  instinct.'  No  doubt  the  waste  of  life  which  is 
frequently  involved  in  self-sacrifice  may  be  regarded  as  a  kind 
of  stupidity  or  its  result,  in  so  far,  for  instance,  as  it  is  needless 
or  unsuccessful.  But  the  very  same  argument  applies  to  many 
of  the  sacrifices  of  man  himself.  In  rescue  from  drowning 
by  the  dog  we  have  not  only  courage,  with  prompt,  impulsive 
action,  but  also  appreciation  of  danger,  sympathy  with  the 
peril  of  others,  overcoming  natural  timidity  of  water  or  love 
of  life,  and  frequently  the  most  genuine  self-sacrifice,  in  the 
same  sense  in  which  such  a  term  can  be  applied  to  the  noblest 
actions  of  man.  It  makes  its  sacrifice  knowing  the  risk, 
fearing  the  pain,  and  clinging  to  life  (Cobbe). 

When  the  collie  or  terrier,  which  are  not  water  dogs,  jumps 
into  the  sea  or  a  river  to  save  life,  recover  property,  or  simply 
to  obey  the  behest  of  its  master,  its  natural  dislikes  are 
overcome  by  stronger  feelings,  such  as  affection  or  sym- 
pathy; in  some  cases  it  may  be  simply  by  obedience,  discipline, 
the  dread  of  punishment,  or  hope  of  reward. 

Man's  interpretation  of  animal  motive  here  again  crops  up. 
If  he  admit  or  assign  a  motive  at  all,  it  is  almost  sure  to  be 
an  ungenerous  or  erroneous  one.  Man,  and  especially  hyper- 
critical man,  does  not  give  the  dog,  in  life-saving  by  it,  credit 
for  the  best  but  the  worst  motives ;  or  he  is  foolish  enough  to 
attribute  its  action  to  mere  instinctive  impulse.  He  ascribes 
in  it  the  practical  virtue  of  generosity  to  the  mere  giving  away 
of  what  is  not  valued  or  required,  or  of  what  does  not  belong 
to  it — for  instance,  in  the  case  of  superfluities  of  food  or  booty 
— or  to  a  desire  for  mere  physical  comfort — pure  selfishness 
(Houzeau).  And  all  these  forms  of  generosity  may  occur 


AND  DEHEKIT.  189 

among  other  animals,  just  as  they  do  so  very  certainly  and 
commonly  in  man.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that 
frequently,  if  not  generally,  the  generosity  of  the  lower 
animals,  where  it  exists,  is  of  a  higher,  purer  kind. 

Tocque  monkeys  nurse  each  other  or  human  children 
(Cassell).  This  may  be  the  result  simply  of  imitation  of  the 
behaviour  of  human  female  nurses  or  ayahs ;  but  we  know 
full  well  that  in  countless  other  cases,  whatever  be  the  case 
in  the  Tocque  monkey,  the  nursing  of  animals  by  each  other 
involves  the  very  highest  moral  and  mental  qualities — affec- 
tion, devotion,  self-sacrifice,  disinterestedness,  vigilance,  fore- 
sight, and  so  forth. 

Intercession  in  combat  may  sometimes,  as  is  alleged,  arise 
from  a  selfish  motive — for  instance,  in  the  case  of  a  hen,  from 
the  risk  of  injury  to  her  young  (Houzeau).  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  we  know  that  many  animals  have  compassion  for 
suffering ;  and  there  are  many  cases  of  mediation  in  which 
there  is  no  room  or  ground  for  the  ascription  of  selfish 
motives. 

Conciliation  of  man  by  animals,  we  are  told,  may  spring 
from  a  knowledge  of  the  advantage  of  man's  friendship  in 
the  bestowal  of  food  and  the  affording  of  protection  and 
.  shelter — in  other  words,  from  a  selfish  motive.  And  there  is 
no  denying  and  no  disposition  to  conceal  the  fact  that  selfish- 
ness rules  among  other  animals  just  as  it  does  among  men — 
certainly  not  more  so.  They  are  not  all  virtue ;  there  is  a 
due  blending  of  vice.  But  conciliation  may  arise  from  other 
causes  or  motives — for  instance,  and  much  more  probably, 
from  the  necessity  for  loving  and  of  being  loved  in  return. 

Again,  it  is  alleged  that  their  love  of  knowledge,  where  it 
exists  or  is  implied — for  instance,  in  their  inquisitiveness — 
is  for  selfish  ends.  That  this  may  frequently  be  the  case  is 
quite  probable.  In  what  proportion  of  mankind,  however, 
can  it  be  said  that  the  desire  for  knowledge  has  any  higher 
motive  ?  Is  it  not  in  man  the  conviction  that  *  knowledge  is 
power'  that  leads  most  usually  to  its  acquisition  by  him? 
Love  of  knowledge  for  its  own  sake  is  obviously  peculiar  to 
the  higher  races  in  man,  and  to  the  most  highly  endowed 
individuals  of  these  races. 


190  MORAL  MERIT 

Hospitality  may  have  a  very  definite  purpose  in  view,  as 
in  the  case  of  a  dog  which,  having  been  seriously  assaulted 
by  a  larger  one,  and  being  desirous  of  revenging  itself  on 
its  adversary,  gave  a  dinner  from  its  own  saved-up  rations 
to  a  number  of  guests,  in  return  for  which  they  gave  their 
services,  which  consisted  in  the  worrying  of  the  obnoxious 
bully  (Macaulay).  The  sagacious  sufferer  here  offered  a 
bribe  or  reward  beforehand  for  certain  required  services; 
there  was  prepayment  of  service,  appreciation  of  reward, 
knowledge  of  the  efficacy  of  a  bribe,  selection  of  the 
proper  kind  of  bribe,  self-denial  in  saving  half  its  rations 
for  a  length  of  time,  providence  in  storing  this  half  for  a 
future  definite  use,  formation  of  a  plan  of  action,  and  com- 
munication to  others  of  its  wishes  and  ideas.  It  cannot  be 
affirmed  that  man's  hospitality  is  always  or  generally  deter- 
mined by  such  satisfactory  reasons,  or  that  it  developes  or  is 
the  outcome  of  as  high  traits  of  moral  or  mental  character. 

The  interest  which  social  animals  take  in  each  others' 
affairs  or  operations,  ordinary  or  extraordinary,  or  which 
the  dog,  monkey,  or  other  animals  take  in  the  doings  of 
man,  may  be  mere  curiosity ;  and  we  know  that  curiosity 
exercises  a  frequent  and  powerful  influence  among  the  lower 
animals,  as  in  man.  But  it  is  obviously  not  mere  curiosity 
that  induces  the  mother  fox  to  sit  quietly,  complacently,  and 
gravely  contemplating  the  sports  of  her  young  (Houzeau) ; 
nor  can  curiosity  have  any  influence  in  leading  the  dog, 
horse,  elephant,  or  other  working  animals  to  take  a  profes- 
sional interest  in  their  work. 

When  a  dog  voluntarily  shares  its  master's  prison  it  may 
be  actuated  not  by  sympathy,  but  by  mere  love  of  his  society, 
attachment  to  his  person,  and  dislike  to  be  separated ;  and 
a  mere  love  of  companionship  may  also  be  suggested  as  the 
motive  that  leads  free  birds  voluntarily  to  imprison  them- 
selves with  those  which  are  caged. 

It  has  been  contended  that  what  other  animals  do  is  the 
expedient,  not  the  right ;  and  that  this  is  sometimes  the  case 
there  is  no  reason  to  doubt.  They  deliberate,  as  man  does, 
whether  a  contemplated  act  will  be  profitable  or  safe,  they 
balance  probable  ultimate  pains  against  certain  immediate 
pleasures,  and  they  act  according  to  the  degree  of  their  self- 


AND  DEMERIT.  191 

control,  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  their  temptation  on  the 
other,  too  frequently  seeking  present  gratification  and  disre- 
garding ulterior  punishment.  But  that  they  do  not  always 
select  the  expedient,  and  that  they  can  do  the  right  in  the 
face  of  apparent  inexpediency,  is  shown  by  countless  in- 
stances of  devotion  to  the  death.  Or  we  are  told  that  right 
and  wrong  action  may  be,  and  perhaps  generally  is,  deter- 
mined by  fear  of  punishment  or  expectation  of  reward. 
Unquestionably  it  frequently  is  so,  but  not  more  frequently 
so  than  in  man — in  all  probability  not  so  frequently. 

By  those  who  deny  human  virtues  to  the  lower  animals  we 
are  told  that  duty  in  the  dog,  or  what  is  called  duty,  is  only  a 
shadow  thereof  and  the  offspring  of  fear.  No  doubt  in  some, 
or  it  may  be  in  many,  cases  this  holds  good.  But  the  more 
closely  the  subject  is  studied  in  man,  the  more  will  the  un- 
biassed student  be  compelled  to  admit  that  in  him  too  duty 
is  frequently  the  result  to  some  degree  or  in  some  form  of 
fear — fear  of  suffering  from  the"  consequences  of  neglecting 
it.  There  is  no  good  reason  to  doubt,  however,  that,  equally 
in  the  dog  and  in  man,  the  dominant  or  sole  motive  in  duty 
or  sacrifice  is,  sometimes  at  least,  disinterested  affection.. 

If  it  be  urged  that  a  dog  may  know  that  an  action  is  for- 
bidden by  its  master  without  necessarily  knowing  that  it  is  in 
itself  in  any  true  sense  wrong  or  immoral,  the  answer  is  that 
to  discuss  such  a  point  would  involve  a  quibble  of  words,  and 
that  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  only  idea  possessed  by 
many  savages,  by  children,  by  many  idiots  and  lunatics,  by 
criminals  and  others  of  the  uneducated  classes  of  every  civi- 
lised community,  of  wrongfulness  of  action  or  wrong-doing  is 
that  it  is  prohibited,  forbidden,  in  some  way  by  fellow-man. 
Both  other  animals  and  men  know  that  certain  actions  are 
wrong,  in  the  sense  at  least  that  they  deserve  and  will  bring 


Man's  errors  of  interpretation  of  animal  motive  are  such 
that  moral  merit  may  really  be  greatest  where  it  appears,  in 
his  estimation,  to  be  least.  For  instance,  the  dislike  in  a 
really  brave  and  magnanimous  dog  to  fight  with  another 
that  is  not  in  any  sense  its  '  match '  may  lead  to  apparent 
cowardice,  when  there  is  really  a  display  of  wonderful  for- 
bearance. 

14 


192  MORAL  MERIT. 

I  can  scarcely  conceive  the  possibility  of  so  defining 
morality,  morals  or  the  moral  sense,  moral  responsibility, 
and  religious  feeling  as  to  exclude  the  lower  animals  from 
participation  in  the  possession  of  these  qualities.  The 
probability  at  least  is  that  any  ingenious  definition  that 
could  be  so  framed  as  to  exclude  these  animals  would  also 
exclude  whole  races  and  ranks  of  mankind.  Philosophers 
are  constantly  guilty  of  the  folly  of  basing  their  psycho- 
logical definitions  on  faculties,  feelings,  or  phenomena  that 
occur  in  the  most  highly  cultured  individuals  of  the  most 
highly- civilised  human  races.  Their  moral  sense  is  that  of 
the  moral  philosopher,  their  religious  feeling  that  of  the 
Christian  theologian. 

However  man  may  view  the  subject,  certain  of  the  lower 
animals  themselves  have  an  obvious  sense  of  personal  merit 
or  demerit,  and  they  show  this  feeling  in  a  great  variety  of 
very  practical  ways.  The  dog  shows  its  consciousness  of 
having  performed  some  praiseworthy  act  by  looking  for 
approbation  and  reward,  or  of  evil-doing  by  confessing  its 
guilt  and  preparing  either  for  punishment  or  its  evasion.  It 
is  proud  of  a  noble  action  and  ashamed  of  a  mean  one.  It 
exhibits  equally  its  satisfaction  at  successful  defence  or  the 
salvation  of  life  or  property,  and  its  shame  at  theft,  especially 
if  caught  inflagrante  delicto.  It  submits  to  punishment  that 
it  feels  it  has  deserved,  but  protests  against  suffering  for  a 
crime  it  has  not  committed.  The  feeling  that  it  deserves 
praise,  credit,  or  reward  leads  also  to  self-applause  or  self- 
approbation  in  the  dog  (Watson).  As  is  elsewhere  shown, 
the  dog,  horse,  mule,  elephant,  and  other  animals  attach  a 
value  to  their  work.  They  form  an  estimate,  and  a  generally 
correct  one,  of  their  deserts  or  rights,  upon  which  they  some- 
times insist  if  they  are  not  duly  recognised  by  man. 

All  evidence  goes  to  show  that  moral  merit  and  demerit 
must,  along  with  virtue  and  vice  in  general,  be  conceded  to 
the  lower  animals  in  common  with  man.  It  is  not  easy,  no 
doubt,  to  determine  what  precise  amount  or  degree  of  the 
said  merit  or  the  reverse  they  deserve  in  connection  with 
given  actions;  but  the  very  same  kind  of  difficulty  occurs 
incessantly  in  regard  to  man  himself. 


CHAPTEE  IV. 

MOEAL   RESPONSIBILITY. 

IT  has  been  shown  in  other  chapters  that  certain  animals — 

1.  Possess  a  sense  of  right  and  wrong — 

2.  With  a  power  of  choice  between  them. 

3.  Commit  crimes,  and  are  aware  of  the  criminality  of 
their  acts. 

4.  Have  a  wonderful  power  of  self-control. 

5.  Possess  not  only  a  moral  but  a  religious  sense,  in- 
cluding a  conscience. 

6.  Have  a  knowledge  and  dread  of  consequences. 

7.  Can  deliberate  and  decide  on  proposed  courses  of  con- 
duct. 

8.  Have  freedom  of  will,  the  faculty  of  voluntary  action. 

9.  Balance  or  weigh  present  or   immediate  pleasures 
against  prospective  pains. 

10.  Appreciate  rewards  and  punishments. 

11.  Perceive  and  correct  their  own  mistakes,  as  well  fre- 
quently as  those  of  man. 

12.  Have  a  knowledge  of  duty  or  trust. 

Such  moral  and  mental  qualities  seem  to  me  necessarily 
to  imply  or  involve  moral  responsibility.  Various  writers 
experience  no  difficulty  in  conceding  such  a  psychical  quality 
to  certain  of  the  lower  animals. 

Practically  man  in  a  variety  of  ways  recognises  animal  re- 
sponsibility. He  does  so,  for  instance,  in  all  forms  of  training 
or  education  which  are  based  on  the  application  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  rewards  and.  punishments,  and  on  certain  of  the  moral 
or  mental  qualities  immediately  above  enumerated.  It  is  re- 
cognised more  conspicuously  and  directly  in  the  judgment  of 


194  MORAL  RESPONSIBILITY. 

animal  crime  by  human  tribunals.  The  accountability  of  other 
animals  for  their  acts,  when  these  acts  injuriously  affected 
man,  was  the  basis  of  numerous  trials  by  the  earliest  human 
lawgivers,  who  judged  and  punished  animals  for  crimes  or 
misdemeanours  just  as  they  did  man  himself.  Human  laws, 
ancient  and  modern,  practically  acknowledge  animal  respon- 
sibility in  animal  crime.  Thus  the  old  Jewish  law,  as  given 
in  Exodus  (xxi.  28-32),  punishes  an  ox  by  stoning  to  death 
that  fatally  gores  a  man  or  a  woman,  and  not  the  master  to 
whom  it  belongs,  unless  the  animal  was  by  habit  and  re- 
pute vicious  and  he  took  no  means  to  prevent  accident  to 
man  from  its  viciousness.  '  A  horse  whose  master  had 
taught  him  many  tricks  was  tried  at  Lisbon  in  1601,  found 
guilty  of  being  possessed  by  the  Devil,  and  was  burnt' 
(Draper).  In  more  modern  times  the  shepherd's  dog  has 
repeatedly  been  condemned  to  death  and  executed  in  Scot- 
land for  sheep- stealing  (Low). 

Animal  responsibility  was  apparently  recognised  also  in 
the  baptism  of  animals  in  the  thirteenth  century  (Pierquin), 
as  it  has  been  in  admitting  them  as  witnesses  at  law  in 
human  courts  of  justice.  Dogs  have  appeared  as  witnesses 
in  murder  cases  not  only  in  the  Middle  Ages  (Pierquin),  but 
so  recently  as  1872  in  Dundee;  and  their  evidence  has  not 
unfrequently  been  accepted  as  conclusive — for  instance,  in 
the  detection  and  recognition  of  murderers. 

Moral  responsibility  seems,  moreover,  to  be  involved  in 
at  least  many  of  the  practical  jokes  practised,  either  on  each 
other  or  on  man,  by  the  lower  animals.  In  the  cases  re- 
ferred to,  as  is  more  fully  pointed  out  in  the  chapter  on 
*  Practical  Jokes,'  there  is  deliberate  malice  or  intentional 
mischief,  self-amusement  at  the  expense  of  another  or  the 
gratification  of  revenge  or  other  passions,  a  perfect  know- 
ledge of  results,  a  cruel  glorying  in  the  sufferings  of  fellows. 
When  a  parrot  deliberately,  for  its  own  delectation,  sets  a 
cat  and  a  dog  by  the  ears,  or  causes  a  whole  party  of  tra- 
vellers to  stop  a  railway  train  and  get  out  to  look  for  a 
child  that  was  supposed  to  have  fallen  under  the  wheels,  or 
makes  a  servant  maid  or  waiter  attend  to  a  fancied  sum- 
mons from  a  master  or  lodger,  the  animal  must  be  held  as, 


MORAL  RESPONSIBILITY.  195 

in  a  sense,  morally  responsible  for  its  misdeeds  and  properly 
punishable  therefor ;  and  the  best  proof  of  the  propriety  of 
this  view  is  the  fact  that  punishment  prevents  the  repetition 
of  the  offence,  where  it  is  deeded  an  offence  and  where  the 
punishment  is  judicious  and  proportionate.  In  other  words, 
the  animal  can  control  its  propensity  to  self-enjoyment  at 
the  expense  of  others,  can  refrain  from  doing  that  which  is 
forbidden,  that  which  brings  punishment;  and  it  does  so 
refrain,  does  so  control  itself  under  adequate  motive — the 
dread  of  further  punishment. 

But  the  responsibility  which  in  many  cases  is  attached 
to  the  dog  or  other  animals,  in  at  least  the  majority,  really 
pertains  to  man,  to  the  owner  of  the  animal,  who  has 
usually  been  also  its  trainer.  Many  animals  commit  crimes, 
and  what  they  know  to  be  crimes — voluntarily,  at  their 
own  instance — without  instruction  from  man ;  for  instance, 
murder  either  of  their  fellows  or  of  man  himself.  But,  un- 
happily, these  instances  are  rare  compared  with  those  other 
cases  in  which  the  animals  have  received  a  systematic 
criminal  education  from  man,  whereby  they  have  been  trained 
to  become  either  his  accomplices  or  his  substitutes  or 
instruments  in  crime,  or  all  three,  as  occasion  might  require. 
Sir  Walter  Scott,  the  Ettrick  Shepherd,  Professor  Low,  and 
other  authors  give  us  the  history  of  various  sheep-stealing 
dogs,  some  of  which  suffered — for  or  with  their  masters — 
the  extreme  penalty  of  human  law.  In  such  cases  the 
human  judges  made  no  allowance  apparently  for  the  fact 
that  the  poor  animals,  so  convicted  and  condemned,  were 
morally  vicious  just  because  and  in  proportion  as  their 
masters  had  made  them  so ;  for  which  reason  it  would 
have  been  only  just  had  all  the  responsibility  been  attached 
to,  and  all  the  punishment  fallen  on,  their  human  instructors 
— to  or  on  those,  moreover,  who  alone  had  reaped  the 
benefit  of  the  nefarious  traffic  in  which  man  and  dog  had 
been  alike  engaged.  The  '  character'  and  misdeeds  of  dogs 
still  form  a  frequent  subject  of  enquiry  in  all  our  law  courts, 
but  nowadays  very  properly  in  reference  to  their  masters' — 
not  their  own — responsibility. 

By  the  non-prevention  of  the  development  of  vicious  or 


196  MORAL  RESPONSIBILITY. 

dangerous  habits,  or  the  non-correction  of  such  habits  when 
developed ;  by  neglect  of  proper  education  or  by  vicious 
training ;  by  the  direct  encouragement  or  non-repression  of 
such  propensities  as  biting  or  worrying — the  master  renders 
himself — and  very  properly — liable  by  most  laws  for  the 
damage  done  by  his  dog  or  horse.  By  modern  British  as 
well  as  by  ancient  Roman  and  Greek  law  man  is  held 
responsible  for  the  doings  of  the  domestic  or  other  animals 
which  he  possesses  (Pierquin).  Thus  he  is  answerable  for 
the  acts  of  eccentric,  dangerous,  vicious,  ill-tempered,  insane, 
or  rabid  animals  of  which  he  is  the  owner  ;  so  that  the 
mere  ownership  of  such  animals  as  the  dog,  horse,  elephant, 
cat,  or  monkey  is  in  itself  attended  by  a  considerable  measure 
of — it  may  be  troublesome  and  expensive — responsibility. 

It  may  be  regarded  as  some  sort  of  justification  for  in- 
cluding or  associating  the  punishment  of  the  animals  in  or 
with  that  of  their  masters  that,  had  the  thievish  collies,  for 
instance,  been  spared,  there  might  have  arisen  a  difficulty 
or  impossibility  in  eradicating  their  vicious  habits,  the  pre- 
sumption being  that  the  unfortunate  dogs  would  never  have 
forsaken  their  evil  courses  while  health  and  strength  were 
left.  And  such  a  presumption  is  strengthened  by  what  we 
know  of  the  force  of  habit  or  discipline  in  the  lower  animals, 
as  in  man,  whether  for  evil  or  good.  An  amusing  story  has 
been  told  by  William  Howitt  and  other  writers  of  a  high- 
wayman's horse  which  knew  and  played  its  part  well  while  it 
remained  a  highwayman's  horse,  but  which,  when  sold  to  an 
honest  man,  showed  the  influence  of  its  former  bad  habits, 
the  result  entirely  of  man's  training,  by  leading  him  nolens 
volens  into  the  most  awkward  predicaments.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  is  impossible  to  say  what  might  have  been 
achieved  by  systematic  kindly  efforts  at  reformation  in  the 
case  of  dogs  and  horses  trained  for  their  special  purposes  by 
sheep-stealers  and  other  classes  of  thieves,  robbers,  brigands, 
or  smugglers.  The  chances  of  reformation  and  the  advan- 
tages of  reformatories  are  quite  as  great  or  as  small  in  the 
case  of  animal  as  of  human  criminals. 

We  know  that  in  man  criminals  have  certain  mental 
characteristics,  certain  moral  defects  (Bruce  Thomson).  They 


MORAL  RESPONSIBILITY.  197 

may  fitly  be  spoken  of  as  a  race  or  breed  by  themselves — a 
race  or  breed  morally  and  mentally  defective.  The  same 
would  be  the  result,  according  to  the  law  of  heredity,  were 
man  artificially  to  breed  animals  with  a  special  aptitude  to 
some  particular  vice — say,  theft.  The  hereditary  transmis- 
sion of  a  criminal  disposition  or  tendency  in  the  sheep- 
stealing  dog  is  as  certain  or  as  probable  as  is  the  inheritance 
— whether  in  man  or  other  animals — of  any  other  parental 
peculiarity — mental,  moral,  or  bodily.  So  that  man  incurs 
necessarily  a  very  grave  responsibility  when  he  either  trains, 
encourages,  or  permits  subject  animals  to  indulge  their 
natural  or  acquired  vicious  propensities  for  theft,  murder, 
assault,  or  destructiveness. 

Whether  or  not  man  assigns  to,  or  admits  in  or  for,  the 
lower  animals  any  kind  or  degree  of  moral  responsibility, 
these  animals  themselves  have — in  connection,  for  instance, 
with  the  discharge  of  duty — notions  of  responsibility  or 
accountability.  Not  only  so,  but  they  apparently  recognise 
both  responsibility  and  irresponsibility  in  their  offspring  and 
their  fellows,  as  well  as  in  other  species  and  genera,  including 
man.  Thus  they  distinguish  mental  defect  in  their  offspring, 
and  make  the  proper  allowance  for  all  its  disabilities.  The 
dog  that  is  the  playfellow  of  the  human  child  or  infant 
appears  to  recognise  the  irresponsibility  of  the  latter  for  its 
thoughtlessness,  its  incapacity  for  proper  behaviour ;  and 
the  result  of  such  a  measure  of  discrimination  is  wonderful 
forbearance  under  the  teasing  or  provocation  to  which  the 
lower  animal  is  sometimes  habitually  subjected  by  its  cruel 
little  human  tryant.  The  dog  submits  quietly  to  treatment 
from  a  child  that  it  would  at  once  resent  from  an  adult.  m 

There  is  a  voluntary  assumption  of  responsibility  in  foster 
parentage. 

In  health  and  in  ordinary  circumstances  certain  animals 
can  prevent,  control,  or  direct  given  courses  of  conduct  or 
action ;  but  there  are  forms  or  states  of  mental  disease — for 
instance,  insanity,  and  exceptional  mental  conditions,  such 
as  fright  or  panic — in  which  self-control  is  lost,  and  their 
responsibility  for  the  resultant  action  becomes,  or  should  be- 
come, either  absolutely  or  partially  removed.  There  are,  in 


198  MOKAL  EESPONSIBILITY. 

short,  just  as  in  man,  degrees  both  of  responsibility  and  ir- 
responsibility. Sportsmen,  for  example,  have  to  recognise  the 
non-accountability,  by  reason  of  mental  defect,  of  particular 
dogs  of  a  breed,  which  show  unusual  characteristics,  such  as 
conspicuous  want  of  pluck  and  sagacity.  Their  occasional 
total  or  partial  irresponsibility,  the  abolition  or  suspension  of 
responsibility,  must  be  recognised  or  determined  on  precisely 
the  same  sort  of  grounds  as  in  man.  The  absence  of  the 
moral  sense  in  many  human  criminals  leads  medical  jurists, 
for  instance,  to  regard  them  as  '  morally  irresponsible,  no 
matter  how  great  the  crime  against  society.'1  Equally  in 
man  and  other  animals,  then,  the  presence  or  absence  of 
this  moral  sense  must  determine  the  measure  of  responsi- 
bility or  irresponsibility. 

One  of  the  attributes  of  the  Andaman  Islanders,  accord- 
ing to  travellers,  is  their  moral  irresponsibility ;  and  similar 
irresponsibility,  in  the  absence  of  any  proper  moral  feeling, 
may  be  said  to  be  attachable  to  other  savage  races  in  a  more 
real  sense  than  that  in  which  certain  of  the  higher  animals — 
such  as  the  sheep-stealer's,  poacher's,  brigand's,  smuggler's, 
or  highwayman's  dog — can  be  said  to  be  non-responsible. 

In  judging,  for  instance,  of  the  degree  of  responsibility 
or  irresponsibility  that  is  attachable  to  animals  in  a  state  of 
rage  or  fury,  created  by  man,  due  consideration  must  be 
given  to  the  kind  and  amount  of  provocation  to  which  they 
have  been  subjected,  as  well  as  to  the  natural  character  of 
the  animals  themselves  and  the  kind  or  amount  of  their 
education.  In  the  great  majority  of  instances — as  has  been 
already  stated — man  is,  and  ought  to  be  held,  responsible  for 
the  accidents  that  arise  from  the  behaviour  of  the  animals 
subject  to  his  management,  or  more  frequently  his  mis- 
management. The  master  —  not  his  instrument  —  should 
generally  be  punished  for  the  illegal  or  punishable  offences 
of  the  animals  in  his  possession  or  under  his  control, 
though  in  so  far  as  an  animal  itself  takes  part  in  a  proce- 
dure which  it  knows  to  be  wrong,  or  illegal,  or  forbidden, 
and  gets  some  share  in  the  benefit — is  not  a  mere  tool  or 
instrument- — it  may  be  held  pro  tanto  responsible. 

1  Reviewer  in  '  London  Medical  Record '  of  May  1875. 


MORAL  EESPONSIBILITY.  199 

Man's  responsibility  for  the  results  of  animal  insanity  is 
clear  in  such,  cases  as  the  artificial  panic  produced  among 
horses  by  human  thieves  at  the  fairs  of  Normandy,  as 
mentioned  by  Pierquin.  These  panics — intentionally  pro- 
duced by  irritants  diffused  in  the  air  or  otherwise — were  the 
source  of  direct,  immediate,  and  obvious  danger,  not  only  to 
the  animals  affected  themselves  and  to  other  animals  exposed 
at  the  fair,  but  to  all  mankind  who  constituted  the  crowds  so 
usual  on  such  holiday  occasions.  Again,  moral  turpitude, 
whether  it  is  rightly  or  wrongly  attached  to  the  dog  that 
co-operates  with  the  poacher,  sheep-stealer,  smuggler,  brigand, 
or  thief,  certainly  pertains  to  the  man  who  systematically 
teaches  the  animal  to  become  his  accomplice  in  acts  which 
the  man  at  least  knows  to  be  unlawful  and  punishable.  The 
poor  dog  is  urged,  enticed,  bribed,  instructed,  compelled  by 
its  master  to  commit  or  to  take  part  in  the  commission  of 
illegal  acts.  The  merciless  biting  and  worrying  of  persons 
or  other  animals — especially  sheep — by  collies  or  other  dogs 
— a  propensity  that  may  be  natural  or  morbid — is  only  too 
frequently  the  result  of  man's  evil  training  or  evil  usage. 
The  relentlessness  of  the  bloodhound  is  another  effect  of 
education  by  man  (Lewes).  Incompetent  masters  have  to 
answer  for  the  misinstruction  of  sporting  dogs,  as  injudicious 
trainers  have  for  the  vicious  faults  of  character  or  temper 
attributable  to  undue  severity  in  breaking  (Walsh). 

Man's  responsibility  for  the  misdeeds  of  domestic  animals 
belonging  to  him  is  recognised  in  the  earliest  laws  of  the 
ancient  Hebrews.  Thus  we  have  in  the  twenty-first  chapter 
of  Exodus  l  regulations  made  by  Moses  for  the  punishment 
of  masters  who  wilfully  or  knowingly  keep  an  ox  that  is 
addicted  to  fighting  or  goring,  while  in  certain  events  the 
ox  itself  was  so  far  held  responsible  that  it  was  punished  by 
being  stoned  to  death  or  otherwise.  In  other  words,  a  master 
was  chargeable  with  murder  who  was  possessed  of  an  ox  that 
fatally  gored  a  man  or  woman,  if  he  was  previously  acquainted 
with  the  animal's  propensity,  while  the  offending  ox  itself 
was  also  punished  for  what  was  held  to  be  murder.  The 
penal  codes  of  various  countries  and  ages,  jurisprudence  both 
1  Verses  28-36. 


200  MOEAL  EESPONSIBILITY. 

ancient  and  modern,  but  ancient  perhaps  even  more  than 
modern,  have  held  man  responsible  for  a  great  variety  of 
results  of  the  acts  of  animals  of  which  he  is  the  possessor  or 
custodier.  Man's  responsibility,  for  the  results  to  other  men 
at  least,  of  the  vices  or  viciousness  of  animals  belonging  to 
him  as  property  may  indeed  be  said  to  have  been  recognised 
by  or  in  the  laws  of  all  civilised  countries  throughout  the 
world  and  in  all  times.  They  have  inflicted  penalties  on  man 
for  a  great  variety  of  acts  of  mere  neglect  or  indifference  as 
well  as  of  cruelty,  for  faults  of  omission  as  well  as  of  commission, 
for  the  non-exhibition  of  sympathy  or  mercy,  the  withholding 
of  aid,  as  well  as  the  wanton  cruelty  of  children  or  adults. 
The  Athenian  Areopagus  showed  a  good  example,  and  taught 
salutary  lessons  to  all  subsequent  ages  and  to  all  other  coun- 
tries, in  its  exposure  and  punishment  of  man's  shortcomings 
in  duty  towards  the  lower  animals.  Thus  the  ancient  Athe- 
nians punished  those  who  either  excited  their  dogs  to  bite 
or  did  not  restrain  them  from  biting. 

Considering  the  evils  to  the  animals  themselves,  no  less 
than  the  danger  to  human  life  it  is  liable  to  produce,  all 
needless  and  intentional  excitement,,  irritation,  provocation, 
torment,  or  torture  of  animals  by  man  should  be  held  as  a 
legal  offence  on  his  part.  Illustrations  of  the  results  of  such 
excitement  or  provocation,  or  of  man's  being  held  responsible 
by  fellow-man  for  the  actions  of  animals  belonging  to  him, 
are  to  be  met  with  constantly  in  our  petty  law  (police,  justice 
of  peace,  sheriff,  or  other)  courts,  where  injury  from  dog- 
bites,  accidents  from  restive  horses,  damage  to  property 
from  stray  cattle,  are  the  common  subjects  of  judicial  exa- 
mination and  punishment. 

It  is  but  just,  for  instance,  that  man  should  be  held  fully 
responsible  for  the  results  of  insanity  or  other  disease,  or  of 
vice,  developed  at  any  time  prior  to  the  sale  of  the  animal,  in 
a  horse  or  a  dog  belonging  to  him,  of  which  insanity  the 
master  was  quite  cognisant,  and  which  disability  indeed  it 
was  that  led  to  his  parting  with  the  affected  animal,  knowing 
that  one  attack  was  likely  to  be  followed  by  others  of  in- 
creasing severity  or  duration.  It  is  proper  he  should  suffer 
for  concealment  of  the  fact  that  an  animal  labours  under 


MORAL  RESPONSIBILITY.  201 

serious  defects  of  character,  brought  about  very  likely  by  his 
own  improper  usage.  It  is  even  righteous  that  farmers  should 
suffer  loss  by  the  decimating  animal  diseases  that  result 
from  their  own  neglect,  ignorance,  prejudice,  or  superstition. 
Unfortunately  the  innocent  must  suffer  with  the  guilty  in 
such  cases.  The  farmer  makes  up  his  losses  by  the  over- 
charge of  the  public,  to  whom,  moreover,  he  is  only  too  apt 
to  supply  bad  flesh,  milk,  butter,  and  other  animal  produce — 
infected  produce,  in  other  words,  that  is  the  source  of  bound- 
less misery  and  disease  in  man.  It  is  a  popular  saying  that 
*  all  is  fair  in  love  and  war,'  to  which  may  be  added  horse- 
dealing.  It  has  occurred  to  myself  when,  purchasing  a  pony, 
I  had  trusted  the  assertion  of  the  seller  that  it  was  free 
from  all  faults  of  character — to  find,  when  too  late,  that  it 
had  been  quite  notorious  for  its  temper  and  its  tricks,  and 
to  be  told  by  a  certain  army  general,  who  was  himself  the  very 
soul  of  honour,  that  a  man  might  be  a  gentleman  in  every- 
thing save  horse-selling.  In  the  eyes  of  every  honest  man, 
however,  as  well  as,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  in  the  eye  of  the  law, 
the  man  who  palms  off  a  vicious,  dangerous  horse  or  dog  as  an 
inoffensive  one  is  a  rogue,  and  deserves  the  severest  punish- 
ment of  roguery,  for  he  is  indirectly  the  cause  of  much  loss  of 
human  life,  of  much  injury,  many  accidents,  to  his  fellow- 
men.  Where  such  losses  of  life  occur  he  is  virtually  charge- 
able with  homicide,  and  should  be  dealt  with  as  a  homicide. 


CHAPTEE    V. 

RELIGIOUS   FEELING    IN   LOWER   MAN. 

AN  essential  preliminary  to  a  consideration  of  the  question 
whether  the  lower  animals  possess  what  is  entitled  to  be 
called  or  recognised  as  religious  feeling,  is  a  study  of  what 
is  called  the  '  religious  instinct '  in  man ;  but  not  in  man 
of  high  or  the  highest  religious  culture.  We  must  study 
the  religious  instinct  in  its  lowest,  not  its  highest  mani- 
festations, in  its  crude,  not  cultivated  state  ;  in — 

1.  The  lower  or  savage  races  of  man — 

a.  The  absence  of  all  religion. 
&.  Rudimentary  forms  of  religion — 
as  well  as  in — 

2.  The  higher  or  civilised  races ;  in — 

a.  Infants  and  children. 
6.  Idiots  and  the  insane. 

c.  The  criminal  classes. 

d.  Buddhists  and  other  classes  or  races  of  atheists 

or  pantheists. 

Nor  are  certain  considerations,  based  upon  the  condition  of 
religion  in  adults  of  the  educated  and  moral  classes  of  the 
most  highly  civilised  nations  of  the  West,  altogether  irrele- 
vant. 

In  the  first  place,  missionaries  and  travellers  in  different 
parts  of  the  world,  and  various  writers  on  the  natural  history 
of  man,  tell  us  that  there  are,  or  were,  certain  savage  races 
utterly  devoid  of  any  religious  sentiment,  sense,  idea,  wor- 
ship, or  observance.  Thus  the  Uev.  William  Colenso,  of 
Napier,  New  Zealand,  says  of  the  Maoris,  when  they  wore 
first  visited  by  Europeans — a  race  with  which  I  have  myself 


RELIGIOUS  FEELING.  203 

come  in  contact  in  the  course  of  many  wanderings — '  Eeli- 
gion,  according  to  both,  the  true  and  popular  meaning  of  the 
word,  they  had  none.  "Whatever  religion  may  be  defined  to 
be — virtue  as  founded  upon  the  reverence  of  God  and  expec- 
tation of  future  rewards  and  punishments,  or  any  system  of 
Divine  faith  and  worship — they  knew  nothing  of  the  kind. 
They  had  neither  doctrine  nor  dogma,  neither  cultus  nor 
system  of  worship.  They  knew  not  of  any  Being  who  could 
properly  be  called  God.  They  had  no  idols.  They  reverenced 
not  the  sun,  nor  moon,  nor  glittering  heavenly  host,  nor  any 
natural  phenomena.' !  Mr.  Colenso  happens  to  be  not  only 
a  missionary  but  also  a  naturalist.  As  a  missionary  his  bias 
would  probably  lead  him  to  discover  some  germ  of  religion 
in  this  and  every  other  savage  race,  did  such  a  germ  really 
exist ;  but  as  a  naturalist  he  feels  bound  to  represent  facts 
simply  as  he  finds  them.  His  opinion  as  regards  the  New 
Zealanders  is  confirmed  by  a  writer  of  a  different  kind — 
Edward  Shortland — who  thus  writes  of  them :  '  The  great 
fact  observable  from  a  consideration  of  their  traditions  .... 
is  that  the  people  had  no  idea  of  a  Supreme  Being,  the 
Creator  of  all  things  in  heaven  and  in  earth.'2  Similar 
views  are,  or  have  been,  held  by  some  of  the  most  eminent 
missionaries  concerning  the  negative  condition  of  religion  in 
other  savage  races,  and  their  testimony  is  of  the  highest 
importance  in  connection  with  the  confident  assertion  so 
constantly  being  made  in  Exeter  Hall  that  in  all  men  the 
rudiments  of  religion,  of  a  religious  instinct,  exist,  and  only 
require  suitable  cultivation  and  direction.  The  Rev.  Dr. 
Moffatt,  the  veteran  South  African  missionary,  says  of  the 
Bushman  (or  Bosjesman),  *He  knows  no  god;  knows  no- 
thing of  eternity.'  a  In  his  address  on  South  African  missions 
in  Westminster  Abbey,  in  November  1875,  he  said  of  the 
Bechuanas  when  he  first  visited  them,  '  They  had  no  idea  of 
a  God,  and  no  nof  ion  of  a  hereafter.  There  was  not  an  idol 
to  be  found  in  all  their  province,'  and  one  being  shown  to  a 
chief,  '  an  intelligent  leader  of  the  people,  it  excited  his 

1  '  Transactions  of  the  New  Zealand  Institute,'  vol.  i.  1868,  p.  385. 

2  Ibid.  p.  329. 

3  '  Missionary  Labours  and  Scenes  in  South  Africa,'  13th  edition,  p.  15. 


204  RELIGIOUS  FEELING 

liveliest  astonishment.  .  .  .  He  ridiculed  the  notion  of  any- 
one worshipping  a  thing  he  had  made  with  his  own  hands.' 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  *  a  printed  book  was  regarded  as  the 
white  man's  charm.' l  Dr.  Moffatt's  distinguished  son-in-law, 
Dr.  Livingstone,  thus  refers  to  the  Makonde  natives  of  the 
Eovuma  district: — *  They  know  nothing  of  a  deity ;  they  pray 
to  their  mothers  when  in  distress ;  they  know  nothing  of  a 
future  state,  nor  have  they  any  religion  except  a  belief  in 
medicine.  .  .  .  They  blame  witches  for  disease  and  death. 
.  .  .  They  fear  the  English.'  The  Rev.  Dr.  Nixon,  Bishop 
of  Tasmania,  was  '  obliged  to  desist  from  all  attempts  at 
conversion,  because  the  poverty  of  their  language  and 
conceptions  rendered  every  higher  religious  idea  impos- 
sible to  them' — the  aborigines  of  Tasmania.  Dr.  George 
Smith,  formerly  editor  of  the  *  Friend  of  India,'  endeavouring 
to  claim  for  the  Andaman  Islanders  '  a  capacity  for  being 
influenced  by  Christian  teaching,'  is  forced,  with  obvious 
unwillingness,  to  admit  that  such  a  capacity  'has  been  so 
lamentably  wanting  in  the  Nicobarese  to  the  south,  whom 
....  the  Jesuits  and  Moravians  successively  attempted  to 
influence  in  vain.'  Regarding  certain  savage  tribes  of  the 
Albert  Nyanza  region  of  Central  Africa,  Baker  reports  that 
the  '  head  of  the  Austrian  mission  acknowledged  ....  that 
the  mission  was  absolutely  useless  among  such  savages  .... 
that  the  natives  were  utterly  impracticable '  as  to  religious 
impressions  of  any  kind.  Baker  himself  found  that  '  the 
obtuseness  of  the  savages  was  such  that  I  never  could  make 
them  understand  the  existence  of  good  principle.  Their  one 
idea  was  power — force  that  could  obtain  all,  the  strong  hand 
that  could  wrest  from  the  weak.' 

These  experiences  and  opinions  of  missionaries  are  abun- 
dantly confirmed  by  the  concurrent  evidence  of  travellers, 
naturalists,  sportsmen,  and  merchants,  all  intimately  ac- 
quainted with  the  habits  both  of  thought  and  action  of  the 
savage  races  among  whom  they  dwelt,  or  with  whom  they 
became  for  the  time  associated.  Of  the  natives  of  Dahomey 
Lieutenant  Ellis  thus  expresses  himself  in  one  of  the  leading 
religious  publications  of  this  country  : — They  '  have  no  idea 

1  'Dailv  News,'  December  1,  1875. 


IN  LOWER  MAN.  205 

of  God.  .  .  .  They  believe  also  in  no  future  state  of  rewards 
or  punishments  proportionate  to  their  behaviour  on  earth, 
which  belief  has  always  been  found  to  be  the  germ  of  civi- 
lisation. .  .  .  Christianity  has  made  scarcely  any  progress.'  1 
Of  one  of  the  jungle  Veddas  of  Ceylon  Hartshorne  tells  us, 
'  He  had  no  idea  of  a  soul,  of  a  Supreme  Being,  nor  of  a 
future  state.  He  thought  there  was  no  existence  after  death. 
He  was  conscious  of  no  difference  between  himself  and  the 
wild  beasts  which  roamed  through  the  forest.'  As  a  whole 
they  '  appear  to  be  almost  devoid  of  any  sentiment  of  reli- 
gion, except  in  so  far  as  may  be  inferred  from  their  offering 
a  sacrifice  to  the  spirit  of  one  of  their  fellows  immediately 
after  his  decease.'  The  author  of  one  of  the  most  recent  and 
comprehensive  works  on  Ceylon,  '  an  officer  late  of  the 
Ceylon  Rifles,'  says  of  these  Veddas,  '  They  know  nothing 
of  heaven  or  hell,  or  any  kind  of  future  existence.'  Never- 
theless, *  so  far  from  being  savage,  they  are  mild  and  inoffen- 
sive. .  .  .  Missionaries  would  be  much  better  and  more 
usefully  employed  at  home  in  reclaiming  the  worse  than  wild 
beasts  in  human  shape  among  ourselves.  Veddas  do  not 
exhibit  any  of  the  brutal,  drunken  ruffianism  of  the  civilised 
savages  who  infest  our  towns,  bite  people's  noses  off,  or  kick 
their  wives  to  death,  and  (these  Veddas)  are  by  far  the 
most  civilised  of  the  two.'  This  contrast  between  the  native 
character  of  the  so-called  savage,  who  has  not  yet  been  sub- 
jected to  the  influences — too  frequently  contaminating  and 
deteriorating — of  civilisation,  and  the  behaviour  of  whole 
classes  of  men  and  women  in  cities  that  superabound  in 
churches  and  in  clergymen,  has  frequently  been  made  by  the 
most  competent  authorities,  and  cannot  be  made  too  fre- 
quently or  too  strongly. 

Of  the  negro  of  Angola  Monteiro  remarks,  '  He  has  no 
idea  of  a  Creator,  nor  of  a  future  existence.  Neither  does 
he  adore  the  sun,  nor  any  other  object,  idol  or  image.  His 
whole  belief  is  in  evil  spirits  and  in  charms  or  fetiches.' 
Kamrasi's  people,  near  the  Nyanza  Lake,  '  although  far 
superior  to  the  tribes  on  the  north  of  the  Nile  in  general 
intelligence,  had  no  idea  of  a  Supreme  Being,  nor  any  object 
1  '  Religious  Rites  in  Dahomey,'  Sunday  Magazine,  vol.  for  1876,  p.  550. 


206  RELIGIOUS  FEELING 

of  worship,  their  faith  resting  upon  a  simple  belief  in  magic, 
like  that  of  the  natives  of  Madi  and  Obbo.  Although 
without  an  idea  of  a  Supreme  Being,  the  whole  country 
bowed  down  to  sorcery  ....  utterly  devoid  of  a  belief  in  a 
deity  and  without  a  vestige  of  superstition,'  says  Baker. 
After  recounting  a  long  conversation  with  a  certain  chief, 
the  object  of  which,  was  to  bring  out  any  glimmer  of  a 
religious  sense,  Sir  Samuel  is  obliged  to  confess,  'In  this 
wild,  naked*  savage  there  was  not  even  a  superstition  upon 
which  to  found  a  religious  feeling.  There  was  a  belief  in 
matter,  and  to  his  understanding  everything  was  material. 
It  was  extraordinary  to  find  so  much  clearness  of  perception 
combined  with  such  complete  obtuseness  to  anything  ideal.* 
Baker  had,  in  fact,  to  give  up  '  the  religious  argument  as  a 
failure.' 

Of  the  Andaman  Islanders,  Dr.  Mouat  says,  '  They  have 
no  conception  of  a  Supreme  Being.  They  have  never  risen 
from  the  effects  they  see  around  them  even  to  the  most  im- 
perfect notion  of  a  Cause.  They  have  never  ascended  in 
thought  from  the  works  to  a  Creator,  or  even  to  many 
creators — that  is  to  say,  polytheism.'  l  Lieutenant  Low,  of 
H.H.  Indian  Navy,  similarly  remarks  of  them,  '  They  do  not 
believe  in  the  existence  of  a  Supreme  Being,  and  perform  no 
religious  ceremony  of  any  sort.' 2  Again,  according  to  the 
evidence  of  the  French  castaway  Narcisse  Pellier,  who  lived 
seventeen  years  among  them,  the  blacks  of  Night  Island,  on 
the  N.E.  coast  of  Queensland  (Australia),  'have  no  knowledge 
of  any  Superior  Being  and  no  form  of  religion  of  any  kind 
whatever.'  Indeed,  '  the  Australian  has  no  words  to  ex- 
press the  ideas  of  God,  religion,  righteousness,  sin;'  and 
'  there  are  numerous  examples  of  savage  nations  ....  who 
have  no  words  in  their  language  to  express  such  ideas ' 
(Biichner). 

In  short,  Lubbock  points  out  how  ample  and  varied  is 
the  evidence  that  goes  to  show  '  that  there  are  races  of  men 
altogether  devoid  of  religion,'  and  that  *  the  question  as  to 

1  '  Adventures  and  Researches  among  the  Andaman  Islanders,'  1863 
p.  303. 

*  '  The  Land  of  the  Sun  :  Sketches  of  Travel,'  1870,  p.  168. 


IN  LOWEE  MAN.  207 

the  general  existence  of  religion  among  men  is  ....  to  a 
great  extent  a  matter  of  definition.* 

While,  however,  there  are  certain  savage  peoples  that 
appear  to  have,  absolutely  or  comparatively — 

1.  No  ideas  of  a  God  or  of  gods,  of  a  Deity,  Divinity,  or 
Supreme  Being,  of  any  Creator  of  or  Ruler  over  the  universe ; 

2.  No  notion  of  any  future  state  of  existence,  of  any 
spiritual  survival  of  death ;  . 

3.  No  worship,  and — 

4.  No  idols,  images,  or  other  objects  of  worship ; 

5.  No  "faith  or  belief  except  in  the  material,  in  what  is 
visible,  tangible,  demonstrable,   cognisant   to   and   by   the 
senses ; 

6.  No  priests  or  spiritual  order ; 

7.  No  superstition ; 

8.  No  tradition — 

there  are  many  more  that  possess  either  some  equivalent  for 
or  some  rudiments  of  religion — in  the  form,  for  instance,  of — 

1.  Worship  of— 

a.  Fellow-man. 

6.  The  lower  animals. 

c.  Inanimate  objects,  including — 

1.  Trees,  plants,  or  leaves. 

2.  Rocks  or  stones  in  their  natural  state. 

3.  Water,  as  that  of  the  ocean  or  rivers. 

4.  Articles  fashioned  by  man. 

d.  Natural  phenomena,  including — 

Fire. 

Thunder. 

Sun,  moon,  and  stars. 

e.  Imaginary  spirits,  good  and  evil. 

2.  Faith  or  belief  in— 

a.  Power,  real  or  imaginary,  embodied  or  not,  for 
good  or  evil,  including  the 

Superstitions  of  sorcery. 

witchcraft, 
magic, 
charms. 

6.  A  future  state  of  being,  whether  of  happiness  or 
the  reverse. 
15 


208  RELIGIOUS  FEELING 

The  worship  of  man  by  his  fellow-man  is  and  has  been  pre- 
valent in  all  ages  and  in  all  countries,  in  all  degrees  or  stages 
of  savagery,  barbarism,  and  civilisation.  In  the  first  place,  as 
regards  the  savage,  he  worships,  from  different  motives  to  a 
certain  extent,  on  the  one  hand  his  own  chiefs,  and  on  the  other 
the  white  man.  A  certain  African  tribe  of  the  Nyanza  region 
'  believed  most  devotedly  that  the  general  affairs  of  life  and 
the  control  of  the  elements  were  in  the  hands  of  their  old 
chief;  and  therefore  they  served  him,  not  with  a  feeling  of 
love,  neither  with  a  trace  of  religion,  but  ....  for  the  sate 
of  what  they  could  obtain'  (Baker).  'The  negroes  of 
Dahomey,  as  elsewhere  in  West  Africa,  considered  white 
men  as  beings  but  little  inferior  to  deities '  (Ellis),  and  the 
explanation  of  this  is  probably  to  be  found  in  the  statement 
by  another  traveller  that  'nothing  impresses  savages  so 
forcibly  as  the  power  to  punish  and  reward  '  (Baker) .  Ac- 
cording to  Spencer,  indeed,  the  savage  first  shows  the  re- 
ligious sentiment  '  in  the  feeling  excited  by  the  display  of 
power  in  another,  exceeding  his  own  power — some  skill,  some 
sagacity,  in  his  chief,  leading  to  a  result  he  does  not  under- 
stand— something  which  has  the  element  of  mystery  and 
arouses  his  wonder.9  Livingstone  has  described  the  worship 
of  the  white  traveller  by  various  African  races.  '  The  white 
traveller  commands  a  kind  of  worship.  The  sick  lie  down 
in  his  shadow  to  be  cured ;  the  young  women  ask  permission 
to  touch  his  strange  skin  and  his  wonderful  hair.'1  Houzeau 
points  out  that  the  deities  of  other  primitive  peoples,  such 
as  the.  Society  Islanders,  are  also  only  men. 

But  the  recognition  of  brother  man  as  a  superior  being 
is  by  no  means  confined  to  savage  races.  Buddha,  the 
founder  of  the  Buddhist  religion,  was  himself  worshipped  as 
a  god,  and  the  same  was  no  doubt  the  case  with  Mahomet. 
'At  the  close  of  a  cholera  epidemic  in  Ceylon,  in  1875, 
certain  Buddhist  priests  from  Burmah  paraded  through 
Galle  in 'a  wheeled  pagoda,  'the  people  adoring  them  as 
gods ; ' 2  and  the  '  Deification  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  in 

1  'Athenaeum,'  December  19,  1874,  p.  822. 
*  «  Sunday  Magazine,'  November  1875,  p.  143. 


IN  LOWEE  MAN.  209 

India '  in  the  course  of  the  same  year  was  the  subject  of  an 
article  in  the  '  Athenaeum.' l 

In  the  various  forms  which  hero  worship  takes,  the  deifi- 
cation of  man  by  man  is  daily  illustrated  by  the  most  refined 
individuals  of  the  cultured  classes  of  the  most  highly 
civilised  nations,  and  has  been  so  illustrated  in  all  times. 
Such  is  the  admiration  of  excellence  of  any  kind  that  many 
ardent  men  and  women  worship  its  human  embodiment  or 
incarnation.  Hence  they  make  divinities  of  poets  or  no- 
velists, theologians  or  philosophers,  sculptors  or  painters, 
soldiers  or  sailors.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Chalmers,  for  instance, 
speaking  of  Rousseau,  says,  *  Nor  were  there  wanting  many 
admirers  who  worshipped  him  while  he  lived  and  who,  when 
he  died,  went  like  devotees  on  a  pilgrimage  to  his  tomb.' 2 
Arnold  spoke  of  the  '  all  but  idolatry '  with  which  he  re- 
garded Bunsen ;  and  there  are  hosts  of  young  men  who 
make  a  god  of  Carlyle  or  Ruskin,  Darwin  or  Huxley 
Shakespeare  or  Tennyson,  Landseer  or  Millais.  In  all  such 
cases  there  is  still  a  respect  for  power,  but  it  is  no  longer  for 
mere  physical  strength;  it  is  a  reverence  for,  or  an  adoration 
of,  intellectual  ability,  artistic  skill,  or  moral  force. 

The  obvious  worship  of  man  ~by  woman  which  cha- 
racterises our  own  civilisation  is  interesting  as  illustrating 
the  sense  of  dependence,  on  which,  according  to  Schleier- 
macher  and  other  authors,  religion  is  mainly  based.  '  The 
mere  feeling  of  dependence  on  a  superior  being '  is  the 
'  lowest  and  simplest  form  of  religion,'  says  Professor  Blackie. 
In  endless  ways  our  most  highly  educated  women  show  that 
they  have  such  a  feeling  for  their  husbands,  fathers,  sons, 
brothers,  or  for,  in  general,  men  as  men.  They  lean  upon 
and  cling  to  them  in  such  a  way  as  to  manifest  their  evi- 
dent consciousness  of  man's  superiority,  and  superiority  not 
simply  as  to  physical  strength.  They  have  faith  in  his  superior 
wisdom,  and  they  look  up  to  him  for  guidance  in  all  the 
more  serious  affairs  of  life.  Nay,  they  frequently  go  so  far 
as  to  make  a  veritable  idol  of  him,  and  worship  him  with  a 
devotion  and  intentness  worthy  of  higher  objects  of  reve- 

1  Of  February  19,  1876,  p.  264. 

2  <  Lectures  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,'  1854,  vol.  i.  p.  237. 


210  RELIGIOUS  FEELING 

rence;  and  they  do  all  this  noth withstanding  sometimes  their 
assertions  to  the  contrary.  For  it  has  occurred  to  me  over 
and  over  again  to  observe,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  that 
members  of  what  has  been  not  undeservedly  called  by  the 
press  *  the  shrieking  sisterhood '  of  masculine  females 
clamorous  for  women's  rights — strong-minded  women  who, 
without  respect  to  facts,  assert  woman's  mental,  if  not 
physical,  equality  with  man — constantly  betake  themselves 
in  all  matters  of  difficulty  to  masculine  support,  advice,  or 
assistance.  Nay,  I  have  seen  women  who  were  philan- 
thropists— literally,  figuratively,  and  professionally — carry 
their  doubtfully  Platonic  admiration  of  man  the  length  of 
despising  their  own  sex.  It  is  shown  in  another  chapter 
that  throughout  the  animal  kingdom  where  mind  exists  at 
all  there  is,  as  a  rule,  a  sexual  psychical  distinction,  the 
female  mind  being  inferior  in  strength  to  the  male.  And  it 
may  here  be  added  that  a  sense  of  dependence  on  that 
superior  mind,  as  well  as  superior  body,  of  the  male  is,  or 
may  be  said  to  be,  throughout  the  zoological  series  a  natural 
attribute  or  instinct  of  the  female. 

Woman's  idolatry  of  man  was  long  ago  pointed  out  by 
Milton  where,  speaking  of  Adam  and  Eve,  he  says — 

He  for  god  only ;  she  for  god  in  him. 

In  our  own  day  George  Eliot  portrays  the  same  thing  in 
*  Daniel  Deronda,'  the  Jewish  youth  who  is  '  in  the  stead  of 
a  god'  to  a  woman;  and  another  of  the  best  of  our  modern 
English  novelists — Mrs.  Craik,  better  known  as  Miss  Mulock 
— referring  to  self-sacrifice,  remarks,  'Many  a  strong-minded, 
noble-minded  man  becomes  a  sort  of  conscience  to  many  a 
weak  woman,  who  regulates  all  her  doings,  not  by  abstract 
conceptions  of  the  right,  but  by  what  he — husband,  or  brother, 
or  father — thinJcs  right.  This  is  a  practical  worship  of  a 
kind  that  is  extremely  common  among  ourselves,  and  a, 
worship  infinitely  better  in  many  cases  than  none  at  all. 
In  such  cases  weakness  must  find  something  strong  to  lean 
upon  and  be  supported  by — as  much  so  as  the  long,  trailing, 
weak  tendril  of  the  climbing  plant  searches  for  until  it  finds 
the  needful  support.'  * 

1  '  Sermons  out  of  Church,'  1875,  p.  10. 


IN   LOWER  MAN.  ill 

On  the  other  hand,  the  deification  of  woman  by  man,  or 
what  is  tantamount  thereto,  is  not  uncommonly  seen  among 
our  most  highly  cultured  classes.  The  writings  of  the  poets 
in  all  times,  indeed,  have  abounded  in  evidences  of  this  sort 
of  adoration.  And  even  philosophers  of  the  driest  type  are  not 
exempt  from  so  tender  an  idolatry.  Of  this  there  is  perhaps  no 
better  modern  instance  than  that  of  the  late  John  Stuart 
Mill,  who  thus  speaks  of  his  own  wife :  '  Her  memory  is  to  me 
a  religion,  and  her  approbation  the  standard  by  which — 
summing  up  as  it  does  all  worthiness — I  endeavour  to  regu- 
late my  life.' '  Thus  he  may  be  said  to  have  made  a  goddess 
of  his  wife.  And,  though  not  to  the  same  extent,  or  in  quite 
the  same  sense,  there  are  hosts  of  other  men  of  culture  or 
refinement  who  make  divinities  of  wives,  mothers,  daughters, 
sisters,  or  beloved.  This  worship  of  woman  by  man,  however, 
differs  in  various  respects  from  that  of  man  by  woman,  or  that 
of  man  by  fellow- man.  In  this  case  also  there  may  be  a 
respect  for  power  or  strength,  but  never  for  mere  bodily 
power  or  strength.  Frequently,  however,  the  source  or  cause  of 
reverence,  admiration,  or  adoration  is  physical  beauty,  some- 
times pure  and  simple,  more  usually  as  associated  with  the 
moral  graces  or  virtues — of  love,  gentleness,  purity — and  even 
with  that  feminine  attribute  that  may  or  may  not  be  con- 
sidered a  virtue — the  sense  of  dependence,  the  attribute  of 
weakness,  already  alluded  to. 

Nor  must  we,  either  in  man  or  woman  in  civilised  peoples 
of  all  ages,  forget  the  many  forms  of  worship  of  the  ideal, 
of  imaginary  embodiments  of  the  physical,  intellectual,  and 
moral  virtues. 

It  is  not  either  necessary  or  desirable  to  describe  here  the 
various  forms  of  the  worship  of  natural  objects  or  phenomena  by 
savage  races — for  instance,  the  fetichism  of  the  West  African 
tribes,  or  the  shamanism  of  the  Tungusians  and  Yakuts.  But 
it  is  of  interest  to  note  that  such  a  kind  of  worship  is 
neither  confined  to  Africa  nor  to  savage  races ;  for,  on  the 
one  hand,  it  is  to  be  met  with  in  the  Sarnoyedes  and  Laplanders 
of  Northern  Europe,  and,  on  the  other,  among  the  in  some  re- 
spects highly  civilised  Chinese.  Rae  tells  us  that  the  Russian 
1  Autobiography,  1873. 


212  EELIGIOUS   FEELING 

Sarnoyedes  of  tlie  present  day,  inhabiting  the  Kanim  Penin- 
sula or  living  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Archangel  or  other 
towns — within  the  pale,  therefore,  of  European  civilisation — 
worship,  as  '  noumea,'  or  deities,  gods  or  idols,  bleached  rein- 
deer skulls,  stuck  upon  sticks  and  fenced  round  with  reindeer 
horns,  as  do  also  the  Lapps.  A  Samoyede  worshipper  'went 
down  on  hands  and  knees  ....  approaching  the  idol  by 
crawling,  prostrating  his  face  and  kissing  the  ground  in 
supplication,  exactly  as  the  Laplanders  approached  their  god 
Jumala." 

'Any  natural  object  different  from  the  common  run  of 
those  which  come  before  him  is  to  the  Siberian  an  object  of 
worship,  which  not  only  the  families  in  the  neighbourhood, 
but  tribes  from  a  distance,  will  visit  and  make  offerings  to. 
A  stone,  a  tree  of  irregular  shape,  a  curious  rock,  may  all  be 
looked  to  by  the  shamanistic  worshipper  as  material  for  his 
adoration '  (Brown). 

As  regards  the  Chinese,  'they  possess  a  kind  of  philo- 
sophical pantheism,  an  adoration  of  certain  natural  objects ; 
but  it  is  a  mere  ceremonial  and  associated  with  no  theological 
doctrines.'  2  '  Eespect  for  their  ancestors  seems,  as  Davis 
long  ago  remarked,  about  the  only  thing  that  approaches  to 
the  character  of  a  religious  sense  among  them,  for  through- 
out their  idolatrous  superstition  there  is  a  remarkable  absence 
of  reverence  towards  the  idols  and  priests  of  the  Buddhist 
and  Taonist  sects'  (Brown). 

The  worship  of  living  animals  is  so  extensive  a  subject 
that  we  cannot  here  enter  upon  it  further  than  to  illustrate 
the  feelings  which  give  rise  to  it  and  the  ceremonies  by  which 
it  is  attended  in  a  single  case.  The  poor  natives  of  India  look 
upon  the  man-eating  tiger  '  as  a  superior  being,  to  be  propi- 
tiated by  prayer ;  and  offerings  of  rice  and  fruit  are  left  at  the 
entrances  of  their  cottages  when  its  approach  is  dreaded. 
.  .  .  Several  natives  came  unexpectedly  into  the  presence 
of  a  tiger.  Being  unarmed,  they  addressed  a  prayer  to  it  for 
mercy.'  Here,  as  in  so  many  other  cases  of  human  worship, 

1  '  The  Land  of  the  North  Wind ;  or,  Travels  among  the  Laplanders  and 
the  Samoyedes,'  1875,  pp.  256-7. 
s  '  Chambers 's  Encyclopaedia.' 


IN   LOWER  MAN.  213 

we  have  obviously  the  fear  of  a  superior  power — the  power  to 
do  evil,  to  produce  death  and  havoc — leading  to  efforts  at  the 
conciliation  of  that  power. 

In  the  human  infant  or  child,  even  of  the  most  highly 
cultured  man,  there  is  no  innate  religious  sense.  It  has,  like 
the  moral  sense,  to  be  created  and  cultivated. 

Again,  in  certain  forms  of  mental  defect  and  disorder — in 
certain  stages  or  kinds  of  idiocy,  for  example— in  the  midst 
of  the  highest  civilisation,  there  is  either  no  religious  sense, 
or  only  the  faintest  glimmerings  can  be  developed  as  the 
result  of  great  pains  in  education.  As  was  long  ago  pointed 
out  by  Shakespeare,  the  idiot  worships  his  toy,  makes  an  idol 
of  manufactured  wood  or  stone : 

The  idiot  takes  his  bauble  for  a  god. 

The  phenomena  of  human  insanity  in  the  lunatic  asylums 
of  our  large  cities  illustrate  what  may  well  be  designated 
the  religion  of  fear  or  its  fruits,  the  influence  of  fear  as  an 
element  in  religion.  Fear  is  an  influence  that  may  be  said 
to  pervade,  or  to  form  the  basis  of,  many  kinds  or  forms  of 
religion  or  worship,  superstition  and  its  rites,  not  in  savage 
races  only,  but  also  among  civilised  and  semi-civilised  peoples 
— fear,  that  is,  of  a  power  to  do  evil.  But  the  acme  of  this 
fear  is  to  be  found  in  certain  forms  of  what  is  called  religious 
insanity.  As  a  physician  whose  specialty  is  the  treatment  of 
insanity  and  allied  disorders  I  have  to  encounter  every  day 
cases  of  poor  nervous,  timid,  hysterical  weaklings  of  both  sexes, 
but  especially  young  ladies,  young  women,  or  girls,  whose 
life  is  rendered  intolerable  by  religious  delusions.  A  more 
pitiable  class  of  patients  I  am  not  acquainted  with ;  more 
abject  wretchedness  I  cannot  conceive.  Their  extreme  mental 
misery  very  commonly  impels  them  to  suicide. 
Anywhere — anywhere — out  of  the  world 

is  their  constant  cry  and  aspiration.  And  for  what  reason  ? 
Because  they  have  constantly  in  their  mind's  eye  what  they 
believe  to  be  the  terrible  realities  of  a  physical  hell.  Ever- 
lasting fire  and  brimstone,  a  lake  of  fire  worse  than  the  crater 
of  Kilauea  or  any  of  this  world's  active  volcanoes,  the  worm 
that  dieth  not,  have  inspired  a  dread  compared  with  which 


214  RELIGIOUS  FEELING 

any  other  kind  of  terror  or  horror  is  a  bagatelle.  And  they 
feed  this  insane  fear — it  is  fed  for  them — by  all  the  Bible 
texts  that  relate  to  damnation,  perdition,  eternal  punishment, 
wrath,  and  vengeance.  To  and  by  themselves  personally  all 
such  texts  are  applied  as  to  persons  who  have  sinned  beyond 
hope  of  mercy  or  forgiveness.  Such  are  the  common  major 
morbid  forms  of  religious  fear — the  major  morbid  results  of 
fear  as  an  element  in  religion. 

But  the  minor  forms  and  results  are  much  more  common 
— for  instance,  in  Presbyterian  Scotland — so  much  so  as  to 
taint  or  tone  society  in  general. 

In  this  and  other  highly  civilised  countries  there  are 
whole  classes  of  people  who  are  characterised  either  by  a 
want  of  the  religious  sentiment  or  by  its  very  low  develop- 
ment even  under  education.  This  may  be  said,  for  instance, 
of— 

1.  The  whole  criminal  class,  as  we  meet  with  its  members 
in  our  great  prisons. 

2.  The  vagrant  class,  including  certain  tribes  or  kinds  at 
least  of  gipsies  or  tinkers,  who  are  not  necessarily  or  always 
criminal  or  vicious. 

3.  A  large  proportion  of  the  lower  or  uneducated  classes 
in  all  our  large  centres  of  population. 

Thus  of  the  cave-dwellers  of  Caithness  Dr.  Mitchell 
declared  in  1866,  'They  went  to  no  church,  and  had  no 
religious  beliefs  or  worship.'  The  French  peasantry  of  the 
present  day,  as  their  characteristics  are  sketched  by  Hamer- 
ton,  exhibit  the  following  among  many  other  evidences  of 
superstition: — 'The  women  go  on  the  Day  of  the  Purification 
to  read  the  Gospel  to  the  bees.  ...  I  have  seen  this  done, 
and  done  in  serious  earnest,  with  a  perfect  faith  that  the  bees 
could  derive  spiritual  advantage  from  the  reading,  and  were 
at  least  so  far  Christians.'  *  And  among  the  same  peasants 
also  there  is  still  a  belief  in  sorcery.*  While  of  a  class  repre- 
senting the  average  civilisation  of  the  metropolis  of  the 
world  Lord  Lyttelton,  in  replying  to  Mr.  W.  R.  Greg's  '  Rocks 
Ahead,'  remarks  apropos  of  popular  Christianity  in  the  capital 
of  England,  '  What  warrant  have  we  for  supposing  that  the 
1  «  Round  my  House,'  1876,  p.  254.  2  Ibid.  p.  256. 


IN  LOWEK  MAN.  215 

majority  of  men  have  the  requisites  for  true  Christian  belief? 
Of  the  first  hundred  men  we  may  count  passing  over  West- 
minster Bridge  how  many  are  the  least  distressed  by  any 
sense  of  sin  or  of  moral  evil  ?  ' 

In  truth,  the  most  highly  educated  class  in  Britain  is 
charged  with  atheism,  materialism,  a  faith  only  in  what  is 
demonstrable  to  and  by  the  senses,  a  belief  that  is  common 
to  the  savage  and  the  child.  Much  has  been  said  of  late  years 
of  the  atheism  of  science,  or  of  its  cultivators.  Wordsworth 
thus  describes  the  modern  scientist,  or  man  of  science  : — 

A  moralist 

Himself  his  world  and  his  own  god  : 
One  to  whose  smooth-rubbed  soul  can  cling 

Nor  form,  nor  feeling,  great  or  small : 
A  reasoning,  self-sufficing  thing, 

An  intellectual  all-in-all. 

*  Here,'  says  Professor  Blackie,  the  most  genial  genius  of 
all  the  academic  celebrities  of  the  'modern  Athens,'  'the  great 
philosophic  poet  clearly  indicates  that,  without  reverence  and 
love,  the  mere  man  of  science  remains  incapable  of  compre- 
hending either  humanity  or  divinity  :  becomes  practically  his 
own  god.'  But  both  philosophic  poets — for  the  Professor  is 
quite  as  well  entitled  to  such  a  designation  as  Wordsworth, 
though  his  philosophy  is  of  a  warmer,  more  human  and  human- 
ising kind — have  before  them  an  ideal,  not  actual,  personage. 
A  '  mere  man  of  science  '  is  much  less  likely  to  exist  in  reality 
than  a  mere  poet.  At  all  events  I  do  not  myself  know  any. 
All  the  men  of  science  I  have  encountered  abroad  and  at  home 
are  something  more  than  mere  men  of  science  ;  they  are  men 
with  all  the  ordinary  human  aspirations,  virtues,  and  vices, 
including  most  assuredly  the  highest  reverence  and  love  for 
the  good,  the  true,  and  the  beautiful,  wherever  they  are  to  be 
found.  Poets  as  well  as  divines  would  appear  to  require 
constantly  to  be  reminded  that  atheism  and  science  have  no 
necessary  relation  or  connection ;  that  theology  is  not  religion, 
but  only  a  part  or  form  of  it ;  and  that  devoutness  and  all  the 
elements  of  religiousness  and  morality  may  exist  with  or 
without  a  belief  in  the  God  of  the  Bible,  as  that  belief  is  set 
forth  in  this  or  that  creed,  dogma,  or  Church  standard. 


216  RELIGIOUS   FEELING 

There  is  unquestionably  in  all  ranks  of  civilised  men,  and 
in  both  sexes,  a  self-worship,  the  result  of  morbid  or  over- 
weening self-esteem  or  self-conceit,  and  such  persons,  puffed 
up  by  a  sense  of  their  own  importance,  may  be  described  as 
their  own  gods ;  but  these  divinities  are  to  be  sought  in  the 
ranks  of  Bumbledom,  in  public  boards  of  all  kinds,  in  Govern- 
ment offices,  and  not  specially  at  least  among  men  of  science, 
who  do  not,  however,  pretend  to  be  exempt  from  the  frailties 
of  their  common  humanity. 

The  idea  of  deity  is  not  necessary  to  religion.  No  such 
conception  as  to  the  government  of  the  universe  or  regulation 
of  human  affairs  is  contained  in  Buddhism,  '  the  most  wide- 
spread religious  system  in  the  world.'  'The  very  idea  of  a 
God  as  creating,  or  in  any  way  ruling,  the  world  is  utterly 
absent  in  the  Buddhist  system.  God  is  not  so  much  denied : 
He  is  simply  not  known.  Contrary  to  the  opinion  once  confi- 
dently and  generally  held  that  a  nation  of  atheists  never  existed, 
it  is  no  longer  to  be  disputed  that  the  numerous  Buddhist 
nations  are  essentially  atheist ;  for  they  know  no  beings  with 
greater  supernatural  power  than  any  man  is  supposed  capable 
of  attaining  to  by  virtue,  austerity,  and  science.  And  a 
remarkable  indication  of  this  startling  fact  is  to  be  seen  in  the 
circumstance  that  some  at  least  of  the  Buddhist  nations — 
the  Chinese,  Mongols,  and  Tibetians — have  no  word  in  their 
languages  to  express  the  notion  of  God.' l 

The  modern  German  philosophy  of  Schopenhauer  in  many 
respects  resembles  Buddhism.  It  may,  in  fact,  be  regarded 
as  a  modified  Western  Buddhism,  in  which  there  is  '  no  re- 
ligion ....  except  that  of  simple  philanthropy  and  self- 
denial.' 

It  appears,  then,  that  in — 

1.  Certain  of  the  lower  races  of  man ; 

2.  Certain  stages  of  development  among  higher  races ; 

3.  Certain  states  of  mental  or  moral  defect,  perversion,  or 

disorder — 

the   religious   sense   either  cannot  be   said  to  exist,  or  it 
occurs  only  in  a  primitive,  germinal  condition.     It  is  innate 

1  Article  'Buddhism  '  in  '  Chambers's  Encyclopedia.' 


IN  LOWER  MAN.  217 

neither  in  civilised  nor  savage  peoples.  Moreover,  it  has  to  be 
noted  that,  where  it  does  exist,  a  low  development  of  religions 
feeling  is  associated  with  a  low  development  of  general  intel- 
ligence. The  converse  holds  good — that  the  religious,  like 
the  moral,  sense  is  a  concomitant  of,  and  is  proportionate 
to,  considerable  native  general  intelligence  and  high  mental 
or  moral  culture. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

EELIGIOUS    FEELING   IN   OTHER    ANIMALS. 

IN  order  to  a  determination  of  the  question  whether  it 
can  be  said  in  any  proper  sense  that  the  lower  animals 
possess  religious  feeling,  it  is  desirable  that  we  should  start 
with  some  intelligible  definition  of  what  religion  is  in  man. 
Remembering  that  the  Christian  religion  is  a  very  limited 
one  compared,  for  instance,  with  Buddhism ;  that  the  reli- 
gions of  different  peoples  are  obviously  very  different  in 
their  nature ;  and  that  in  certain  races,  where  it  exists  at  all, 
religion  is  developed  in  very  rudimentary  forms — the  standard 
definition  which  we  should  adopt,  if  one  be  attainable,  is 
one  that  will  apply  to  what  has  been  so  variously  described 
as  religiousness  or  the  religious  instinct,  sentiment,  faculty, 
emotion  or  impulse,  sense  or  feeling,  notions  or  ideas,  in  all 
ranks  of  man,  in  all  ages,  in  all  stages  of  development  or 
civilisation,  and  in  all  conditions  of  health  and  disease.  We 
must,  therefore,  at  once  obviously  eliminate  all  that  relates 
distinctively  to  the  Bible  and  the  God  of  the  Bible — in  other 
words,  all  the  peculiar  beliefs  of  the  Christian,  the  defini- 
tions that  would  exclude  all  religions  but  his  own,  and  all 
the  substitutes  for  religion  where  no  true  religion  exists. 
Several  classes  of  definitions  may  with  propriety  be  made  use 
of — viz.  (1)  dictionary  definitions,  which  represent  or  reflect 
current  popular  conceptions ;  (2)  the  definitions  laid  down 
by  those  anthropologists,  or  other  authorities,  who  have  taken 
a  wide  survey,  and  made  a  philosophical  study,  of  the  reli- 
gions of  the  world,  and  especially  of  the  germs  or  dawn  of 
religion  among  the  lower  races  of  man;  or  (3)  those  of 
modern  theologians,  many  of  whom  are  beginning  to  see  that 


RELIGIOUS  FEELING.  219 

there  are  other  religions  in  the  world  than  the  Christian 
one,  and  that  the  definitions  which  apply  to  the  latter  do  not 
necessarily  apply  to  the  others.  Many  of  the  most  advanced 
of  our  clergy  are  showing  signs  of  a  recognition  of  the  exist- 
ence of  material  at  least  for  the  construction  of  a  science  of 
comparative  theology ;  but  I  have  met  with  none  that  have 
any  conception  of  the  broader,  more  important  field  of  com- 
parative religion.  The  following  include  specimens  of  the 
various  classes  of  definitions.  The  popular,  the  scientific,  and 
the  theological  ideas  of  religion  are  said  or  supposed  to  be — 

1.  That   which  binds  one  back  from  doing   something 
presumably  wrong.     This  is  the  literal  and  original  meaning 
of  the  word.     Such  a  definition  may  very  properly  refer  to, 
or  include,  or  be  synonymous  with,  such  faculties  or  quali- 
ties as  conscience,  self-control,  or  self-restraint. 

2.  The  feeling  of  reverence  and  love  towards  a  superior 
being,  and  consequent  obedience  to  him. 

3.  Piety,  which  again  is  defined  partly  as — 

a.  The  sense  of  duty. 

b.  Dutiful  conduct. 

c.  Reverence  for  superior  beings,  parents,  friends, 

or  country. 

4.  Systems  of  faith  and  worship,  including  the  perform- 
ance of  worship,  rites,  or  ceremonies. 

5.  Recognition  and  worship  of  superior  embodied  power. 

6.  An  appreciation  of  the  existence  of  superior  beings 
(Houzeau). 

7.  The  fear  of  more  powerful  beings  or  of  superior  power 
(Lubbock). 

8.  'A  blind  sense  of  dependence'  (Schleiermacher). 

9.  'In  the  mingled  fear  and  affection  displayed  towards 
the  dead  we  witness  the  real  germ  of  religious  sentiment  and 
the  origin  of  theology,'  is  said  to  be  the  opinion  of  Herbert 
Spencer. 

10.  '  Always  and  everywhere  a  consciousness  of  relation- 
ship to  a  worshipped  being '  (Flint). 

11.  Self-renunciation  '  constitutes  the  essence  of  all  true 
religion'  (Donaldson). 

Such,  according  to  various  authorities,  are  the  elements  of 


220  RELIGIOUS  FEELING 

religion  in  lower  or  savage  man,  those  elements  that  are 
common  to,  or  form  the  basis  of,  the  religions  of  all  men. 

In  his  Baird  Lecture  on  the  '  Philosophy  of  Eeligion,' 
given  in  St.  George's  Church,  Edinburgh,  in  February  1877, 
Professor  Flint  thus  defines  human  religion  : — '  The  contro- 
versy as  to  whether  religion  is  essentially  knowing,  feeling, 
or  willing  is  merely  verbal.  .  .  .  Eeligion  belongs  exclu- 
sively to  no  one  disposition  or  faculty  of  the  soul,  but  em- 
braces the  whole  mind,  the  whole  man.  At  its  lowest  it  has 
something  alike  of  intellect,  affection,  and  practical  obe- 
dience in  it;  and  at  its  best  it  should  include  all  the  highest 
exercises  of  reason,  all  the  purest  and  deepest  emotions  and 
affections,  and  the  noblest  kind  of  conduct.  .  .  .  Only  a  reli- 
gion which  presents  an  object  of  worship  capable  of  eliciting 
the  entire  devotion  of  the  worshipper's  nature,  and  at  the 
same  time  of  ennobling,  enlarging,  and  satisfying  that  nature, 
fully  realises  the  idea  of  religion,  or,  in  other  words,  can 
claim  to  be  a  perfect  religion.' !  This  recent  and  public 
utterance  of  the  Professor  of  Divinity  in  the  University  of 
Edinburgh  is  important  not  only  as  showing  the  breadth 
and  liberality  of  view  that  characterise  such  Scottish  theolo- 
gians as  Principal  Tulloch  and  Professor  Knight,  of  St. 
Andrews,  Principal  Caird,  of  Glasgow,  and  Professor  Smith, 
of  Aberdeen,  but  as  bringing  out  the  fact  that  religion  is 
not  a  special  or  separate  faculty  or  instinct  even  in  man. 
It  is,  in  short,  merely  a  mode  in  which  the  action  or  opera- 
tion of  various  moral  or  intellectual  faculties,  or  both,  may 
be  combined,  harmonised,  and  manifested. 

Applying  such  a  standard  as  Professor's  Flint's  to  the 
dog,  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  savage  man  on  the  other,  to 
the  worship  by  the  one  of  man — a  living,  visible,  intelligible 
power — and  the  idolatry  by  the  other  of  his  wooden  or  stone 
fetich  or  symbol,  or  his  imaginary  spirit,  it  cannot  fail  to 
strike  those  who  have  made  themselves  conversant  with  the 
habits  equally  of  dog  and  savage  how  much  more  appro- 
priate the  description  or  definition  of  human  religion  is  to 
the  dog  than  to  the  man.  Professor  Flint  tells  us  that  the 
*  human  heart  cries  out  for  a  living,  personal  God  to  wor- 

1  «  Courant,'  February  20,  1877. 


IN  OTHEE  ANIMALS.  221 

ship.'     This  is  precisely  what  the  dog  does  and  the  savage 
does  not  do. 

Whatever  be  the  definition  adopted  of  religious  feeling, 
as  it  is  exhibited  (if  at  all)  in  lower  man,  we  must  admit  that 
the  same  kind  of  feeling,  the  same  moral  or  intellectual  qua- 
lities, or  blending  of  the  two,  are  possessed  at  least  by  cer- 
tain dogs,  and  by  them  frequently  in  a  much  higher  degree 
and  in  a  much  more  real  sense  than  by  countless  thousands 
of  men,  including  whole  races  thereof. 

To  satisfy  ourselves  of  this  we  have  merely  to  study  care- 
fully the  attitude  or  relation  of  certain  dogs  to  their  masters 
— to  man.  That '  man  is  the  god  of  the  dog/  his  deity,  idol, 
or  hero,  is  a  saying  usually  attributed  to  Eobert  Burns  ;  but, 
whether  or  not  such  a  saying  really  emanated  from  him  and 
represented  his  opinion  or  belief,  the  phrase  is  the  appropriate 
expression  of  an  easily  demonstrable  fact  and  feature  in  the 
dog's  character.  And  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  same 
view — perhaps  not  in  quite  the  same  words — has  been  ex- 
pressed by  various  authors,  ancient  as  well  as  modern.  Among 
others  Lord  Bacon  long  ago  wrote,  'Take  an  example  of  a  dogy, 
and  mark  what  generosity  and  courage  he  will  put  on  when 
he  is  maintained  by  a  man,  who  to  him  is  instead  of  a  god, 
or  melior  natural  Both  figuratively  and  in  very  truth  man  is 
frequently — certainly  not  always — the  god  or  providence  of 
the  dog.  That  man  is  sometimes  at  least  the  god  of  the  dog 
is  true,  and  in  a  far  more  real  sense  than  that  the  Grod  of  the 
Bible  is  the  subject  of  genuine  adoration  by  many  so-called 
Christians.  It  may  be  said  with  the  utmost  propriety  that 
to  certain  dogs  man's  will  is  law,  man's  love  is  heaven, 
man's  self  is  god  (Cobbe). 

The  dog's  worship  of  man  in  many  respects  compares 
favourably  with  much  at  least  of  man's  worship  of  superior 
beings,  real  or  supposed,  animate,  inanimate,  or  spiritual. 
It  does  so,  for  instance,  in  the  quality  and  duration  of  the 
love,  which  it  lavishes  not  alone  upon  the  person,  but  upon 
the  memory  and  the  belongings  of  the  being  it  adores. 

Its  affection  is  not  only  pure,  sincere,  earnest,  hearty, 
thorough ;  it  is  a,lso  disinterested :  for  it  survives  neglect 
and  cruelty  of  all  kinds.  It  is  simple,  for  the  animal  seems 


222  KELIGIOUS  FEELING 

to  be  possessed  but  of  one  dominant  idea,  and  that  is  his 
master  (Cobbe).  Its  love  is  so  intense  sometimes  that  any 
rupture  of  the  relationship,  especially  if  sudden,  any  loss  by 
death,  or  even  temporary  absence  from  home,  of  a  beloved 
master  or  mistress  begets,  as  is  shown  in  another  chapter,  a 
fatal  grief.  Its  love  is  life-lasting  and  unchanging,  and  not 
unfrequently  attaches  itself  to  a  grave  for  days,  months,  or 
even  years  after  its  mortal  deity  has  disappeared  from  this 
mortal  sphere,  The  story  of  *  Grey  friars  Bobby,'  the  well- 
known  terrier,  whose  monument  may  be  seen  opposite  the 
gate  of  the  Greyfriars  churchyard,  Edinburgh,  is  but  the 
type  of  numerous  incidents  of  a  similar  kind. 

In  such  cases  there  is  an  obvious  attachment  to  and 
respect  for  a  hallowed  or  cherished  memory — fidelity  to  the 
memory  of  the  dead,  to  the  memory  of  a  great  affection. 
The  dog  also  occasionally  treasures  up,  defends,  or  otherwise 
prizes  or  shows  a  regard  for  relics  of  the  loved  and  lost 
(Cobbe).  In  doing  so  it  is  apparently  actuated  by  devotional 
love.  But  there  may  also  be  a  certain  amount  of  supersti- 
tion or  a  certain  kind  of  fetich  worship. 

For  the  worship  of  man  is  not  the  only  kind  of  idolatry 
practised  by  the  dog.  As  has  been  pointed  out  by  Miss 
Cobbe,  it  engages  occasionally  in  rites  similar  to  those  of 
negro  fetichism  and  of  the  dancing  and  howling  dervish. 
The  object  of  worship  is  selected  apparently  on  the  principle 
on  which  so  many  human  idolaters  select  their  idols — because 
of  its  oddness,  its  unfamiliarity.  But,  unlike  the  West  Afri- 
can negro,  the  Samoyede,  or  Yakut,  unlike  the  human  prac- 
titioner of  fetichism  or  shamanism,  in  the  dog  familiarity 
with  its  inanimate  idol — the  stone  or  post,  tree  or  bush, 
which  at  first  it  feared — breeds  contempt;  and  a  better 
knowledge  of  the  properties  or  nature  of  its  fetich,  and 
especially  a  knowledge  of  its  powerlessness  to  do  harm,  a 
knowledge  begotten  of  due  examination  and  growing  cou- 
rage and  experience,  leads  the  thoughtful  dog  gradually  to 
substitute  for  the  dread,  awe,  wonder — it  may  be  supersti- 
tion— with  which  it  originally  regarded  it,  the  deference 
which  it  addressed  to  it,  a  treatment  that  is  apt  to  be  signally 
ignominious. 


IN   OTHER  ANIMALS.  223 

The  term  superstition  has  more  than  once  been  used  in 
connection  with  the  dog.  The  question  may  here  fitly  be 
raised  and  discussed  whether  superstition,  such  as  occurs  in 
man,  exists  also  in  the  dog  or  other  animals.  According  to 
some  definitions,  at  least,  we  must  concede  that  it  does. 
Thus  human  superstition  has  been  variously  defined  as — 

1.  Excessive  reverence  or  fear. 

2.  False  worship. 

3.  Belief  in  what  is  absurd,  without  evidence. 

4.  Idolatry  of  the  unknown  and  mysterious  (Cobbe). 

Such  animals  as  the  dog  unquestionably  possess  super- 
stition of  this  kind.  It  exhibits  practically  a  belief  in  the 
supernatural  or  preternatural.  It  expresses  alarm  at  appari- 
tions, spectres,  ghosts.  Thus  it  has  been  described  as  regard- 
ing an  owl  as  a  ghost.  And  the  same  kind  of  ghosts  that  are 
occasionally  made  use  of  in  practical  joking,  or  for  more 
serious  ends — for  the'  intimidation  of  man,  and  that  frighten 
him — produce  the  same  effect,  sometimes  at  least,  on  the  dog. 
A  fertile  or  morbid  imagination  frequently  leads  the  horse  as 
well  as  the  dog  to  be  terrified  at  the  first  sight  of  perfectly 
harmless  objects,  animate  or  inanimate,  especially  when  seen 
in  a  state  of  motion  and  in  comparative  darkness — objects, 
that  is,  which  are  simply  for  the  moment  new,  not  familiar, 
not  understood,  and  which  therefore,  being  associated  with 
supposed  danger,  inspire  timidity  or  terror,  as  well  as  pos- 
sibly a  sense  of  the  mysterious  or  supernatural.  Omne  ignotum 
is  taken  not  pro  magnifico  but  pro  malefico ;  it  is  invested 
with  imaginary,  mysterious,  undefined,  and  indefinable 
powers  of  evil.  Bartlett  speaks  of  a  sense  of  mystery  or  of 
mysterious  dread  in  certain  animal  inmates  of  the  London 
Zoological  Gardens.  In  many  animals,  in  short,  under  cer- 
tain circumstances,  awe  or  dread  of  the  unseen,  unknown, 
untried,  unheard,  readily  gives  birth  not  only  to  a  feeling  of 
mystery,  but,  as  is  pointed  out  in  another  chapter,  to  genuine 
delusion. 

We  have  had  occasion  to  see,  in  the  last  chapter,  how 

much  of  human  idolatry  may  be  described  as,  or  ascribed  to, 

the  religion  of  fear.^   By  way  of  contrast  it  is  desirable  here 

to  show  how  much  of  the  dog's  worship  of  man  may  be 

16 


224  RELIGIOUS  FEELING 

equally  appropriately  designated  or  assigned  to  the  religion 
of  love.  Shakespeare  tells  us  that 

Love  is  not  love 

Which  alters  when  it  alteration  finds, 
Or  bends  with  the  remover  to  remove  ; 

but  it  is  human  love,  which  looks  for  return,  which  changes 
with  changes  in  its  object,  which  is  too  commonly  re- 
sentful and  unforgiving,  which  is  in  reality  too  frequently 
a  mere  self-love.  The  love  of  the  dog  for  man  is,  occa- 
sionally at  least,  something  higher,  more  sublime  and 
divine — a  love  that  does  not  change  as  and  because  its  idol 
changes,  a  love  that  can  and  does  forgive  all  things,  that 
submits  unmurmuringly  to  all  offences,  a  love  that  'loves 
on,  forgetting  and  denying  self  that  it  may  still  serve '  the 
beloved — a  kind  of  love,  in  short,  not  usually  ascribed  to  or 
possessed  by  man.  No  doubt  such  a  love  may  be  described 
as  irrational,  unreasoning,  non-discriminating,  in  so  far  as 
it  is  bestowed  quite  as  much  on  the  undeserving  as  on  the 
deserving,  on  objects  sometimes  utterly  unworthy  of  it ;  and 
from  man's  point  of  view  it  is  so  regarded.  The  dog  would 
appear  occasionally  to  cling  all  the  more  closely  to  the  being 
who  spurns  it,  to  lavish  the  wealth  of  its  affection  on  the 
master  who  bestows  upon  it  nothing  but  cruelty. 

The  love  of  the  dog  to  its  master  has  frequently  been 
described  as  transcending  the  love  of  man  either  for  his  fellow- 
man  or  towards  God.  It  is  quite  the  case  that  the  love  of 
certain  dogs  towards  certain  masters,  in  its  depth  and  purity, 
its  sincerity  and  disinterestedness,  is  infinitely  superior  to 
the  love  of  countless  thousands  of  men  either  towards  their 
fellow-men  or  their  Maker.  Shortly  before  he  died  Sir 
Edwin  Landseer,  embracing  his  favourite  terrier  Tiney, 
exclaimed,  'Nobody  can  love  me  half  as  much  as  thou 
dost ; '  and  many  an  author  such  as  Byron  and  Scott,  many 
a  man  and  woman  who  has  experienced  the  difference  be- 
tween human  and  canine  affection,  has  cordially  echoed  Sir 
Edwin's  sentiment  or  opinion.  Cowper  makes  the  poet 
say — 

The  noblest  minds  their  virtue  prove 
By  pity,  sympathy,  and  love: 
These,  these  are  feelings  truly  fine, 
And  prove  their  owner  half  divine. 


IN  OTHER  ANIMALS.  225 

If  this  be  the  case  the  dog,  by  the  possession  and  exhi- 
bition of  such  '  noblest  feelings,'  must  be  considered  as  a 
very  embodiment  of  the  religion  of  love  and  charity.  Cowper 
also  compares — favourably  for  the  dog — the  watchful  love  of 
his  dog  Beau  with  his  own  feelings  towards  God : — 

But  chief  myself  I  will  enjoin, 

Awake  at  duty's  call, 
To  show  a  love  as  prompt  as  thine 

To  Him  who  gives  me  all. 

A  striking  feature  in  the  dog's  love  for  and  worship  of 
man  is,  as  we  have  seen,  its  utter  forgetfulness  of  self, 
its  self-renunciation  amounting  frequently  to  self-sacrifice. 
The  dog  is  often  ready  at  any  moment  to  give  up  its  very 
life  not  only  to  save  the  life  of  its  master  or  its  master's 
child,  but  simply  in  order  to  obey  some  of  his  trivial  behests, 
such  as  the  guarding  of  property.  The  animal  not  only 
works  and  fights  but  dies  for  man,  and  not  always,  or  even 
generally,  for  a  master  or  friend  who  has  been  kind  to  it, 
who  has  earned  its  devotion,  but  frequently,  if  not  generally, 
for  some  master  or  man  most  unworthy  of  such  heroic  self- 
sacrifice.  Now  this  sort  of  self-sacrifice  has  been  described 
as  the  highest  achievement  of  human  virtue,  as  the  very 
essence  not  of  morals  only,  but  of  religion — the  giving  up, 
that  is,  not  only  of  one's  own  interests  and  pleasures,  but  of 
one's  own  life  for  the  good,  real  or  supposed,  of  others. 

Another  of  the  moral  virtues  involved  in  the  dog's  love 
and  worship  of  man  is  its  practice  of  returning  good  for  evil, 
of  repaying  evil  with  good,  of  giving  faithful  service  for 
cruel  neglect.  Such  a  practice  includes  much  more  than  the 
mere  forgiveness  of  enemies  or  injuries,  for  to  the  passive 
virtue  of  forgiveness  is  added  the  active  one  of  benevolence. 
The  dog  or  lamb  licking  the  hand  of  the  slayer  in  the  very 
act  of  slaying  is  the  most  affecting  of  all  incidents,  admits 
even  sarcastic  Pope;  and  it  is  certainly  one  of  the  most 
familiar,  one  that  has  repeatedly  been  celebrated  in  verse 
and  story.  Hood  exclaims,  and  may  well  do  so — 

Alas  for  the  rarity 

Of  Christian  charity 

Under  the  sun ! 


226  RELIGIOUS  FEELINO 

But  charity,  and  of  the  highest  kind,  is  by  no  means 
uncommon  in  the  dog;  nor  is  the  object  of  its  charity 
always  or  necessarily  man. 

That  in  certain  cases  at  least  the  dog  recognises  man's 
higher  nature,  his  supremacy  or  superiority,  not  only  of  a 
mere  physical  but  also  of  a  psychical  kind,  there  can  be  no 
doubt;  for  we  know  that  it  appreciates  in  man  moral 
goodness  and  intellectual  ability,  of  certain  kinds  at  least, 
and  in  their  embodied  form.  Though,  therefore,  it  sometimes 
places  an  unbounded,  unquestioning,  impregnable,  implicit, 
unhesitating  confidence  or  trust  in  a  master  or  man  who  does 
not  deserve  it,  or  while  it  may  look  upon  man  frequently 
as  its  mere  providence — its  provider  with  food,  shelter,  or 
protection — or  as  its  ruler,  regulator,  governor,  or  lawgiver 
— there  are  certainly  cases  in  which  it  attaches  itself  to  man 
in  consequence  of  his  amiable  qualities,  just  as  it  detaches 
itself  from  his  influence  or  power  where  intellectual  stupidity 
on  his  part  exists.  In  other  chapters  it  is  shown  how  ex- 
cellent a  judge  of  human  character  the  dog  is.  Even  as  a 
providence — as  the  higher  being  who  gives  him  his  'daily 
bread,'  who  cures  him  in  disease  and  relieves  him  if  disabled, 
who  is  the  source  'from  whom  all  blessings  flow' — all  the 
blessings,  that  is,  of  domesticity — the  dog  must  recognise 
in  man  moral  virtues  and  intellectual  ability — technical 
knowledge  and  the  power  of  applying  it — as  well  as  mere 
bodily  strength. 

The  moral  goodness  of  man,  moreover,  may  be  commu- 
nicated to  his  dog.  The  tendency  of  intimate  association  or 
companionship,  even  without  special  education,  is  to  assimi- 
late the  character  of  the  dependent  to  that  of  its  master,  to 
make  the  dog  a  reflex  of  the  man,  as  is  shown  in  the  chapters 
on  '  Education.'  So  'that  it  may  be  said,  in  one  sense  at 
least,  that  the  dog  is,  or  may  be,  made  in  the  image  of  the 
being  it  worships.  The  character  of  the  man  determines 
very  much  that  of  his  dog,  whether  for  good  or  evil — a 
significant  fact  in  relation  to  man's  responsibility  for  his 
treatment  of  lower  animals. 

In  connection  with  the  dog's  worship  of  man  it  has  also 
to  be  noted  that  it  possesses  the  power  of  prayer,  petition, 


IN   OTHER  ANIMALS.  227 

entreaty,  appeal,  in  many  different  forms,  all  of  them  more 
or  less  eloquent.  The  true  spirit  of  prayer — of  the  suppli- 
cant for  mercy  or  pardon,  of  the  petitioner  for  reconciliation 
and  restitution  to  favour — is  frequently  contained  in  or 
conveyed  by  the  mere  look  or  attitude  of  the  dog.  The 
earnestness  or  sincerity  of  its  prayer  is  equalled  only  by  its 
eloquence,  while  the  same  thing  certainly  cannot  be  said  of 
the  bulk  of  man's  ceremonial  petitions,  religious  or  other. 
The  power  of  appeal  or  request,  however,  belongs  more 
naturally  and  properly  to  the  chapters  on  « Language '  or  the 
expression  of  the  desires.  If  qui  laborat  oral  or  laborare  est 
orare  is  true  of  man,  it  must  be  no  less  so  in  the  case  of 
other  animals,  whose  labour  so  frequently  transcends  that 
of  man  in  its  disinterestedness  and  other  good  qualities. 
Our  own  Montgomery,  sometimes  called  distinctively  the 
Christian  poet,  in  his  well-known  verses  entitled  'What  is 
Prayer?'  tells  us,  as  beautifully  as  truly,  that  it  is 

....  The  soul's  sincere  desire, 
Uttered  or  unexpressed : 

....  The  burden  of  a  sigh, 
The  falling  of  a  tear, 
The  upward  glancing  of  an  eye.  .  .  . 

All  this  is  as  strictly  applicable  to  the  dog  as  to  man, 
though  its  prayer,  while  not  '  uttered,'  may  nevertheless  be 
even  more  eloquently  '  expressed '  than  by  mere  vocal  or 
verbal  utterance.  The  dog's  appeal  to  man  is  determined 
obviously  by  a  sense  of  the  vainness  of  its  own  efforts — of  its 
own  powerlessness,  and  of  the  need  of  the  help  of  a  higher 
being — a  subject  that  is  discussed  more  fully,  however,  in  the 
chapter  on  4  Self-submission  to  Medical  and  Surgical  Treat- 
ment by  Man.' 

A  parallel  or  equivalent  to  man's  kneeling  and  bending 
in  prayer,  to  the  various  forms  or  degrees  of  his  prostration 
or  grovelling  before  his  idol  or  fetich,  is  to  be  found  in  the 
dog's  crawling  to  its  master's  feet — an  eloquent  expression 
of  its  abjectness,  of  its  submission  to  the  stronger  will,  the 
superior  being,  the  offended  governor.  Dr.  John  Brown  de- 
scribes the  solicitation  of  pardon  in  and  by  his  terrier  Nipper 
by  crouching,  grovelling,  utter  self-abasement.  Again,  a 


228  RELIGIOUS  FEELING 

certain  bitch,  that  had  a  special  respect  for  the  drivers  or 
stokers  of  locomotive  engines  on  the  Metropolitan  Railway 
(London),  and  on  no  other,  when  she  found  one  of  these 
her  human  idols,  '  grovelled  before  him,  danced  around  and 
fawned  on  him,  doing  fetich  generally  to  him.' 

Nor  are  there  wanting  minds  and  men — devoutly  theo- 
logical on  the  one  hand  and  highly  poetical  on  the  other 
— students  of  nature  and  in  sympathy  with  all  nature's 
works,  that  look  upon  bird  song  as  a  form  of  praise  to  our 
common  Creator.  Thus  the  late  Canon  Kingsley  tells  us 
that  St.  Francis  '  saw  no  degradation  to  the  dignity  of 
human  nature  in  claiming  kindred  lovingly  with  creatures 
so  beautiful  [as  birds],  so  wonderful,  who  [as  he  fancied  in 
his  old-fashioned  way]  praised  God  in  the  forest  even  as  the 
angels  did  in  heaven.' l  Such  a  conception  will  be  regarded 
by  others  than  Kingsley  as  only  a  fancy.  But  it  is  not  only 
a  beautiful  fancy :  there  is  a  possibility  at  least  that  it  may 
represent  more  than  fancy — fact.  It  may  be  a  mere  expres- 
sion of  the  joyous  sense  of  existence,  unconscious,  non- 
voluntary  in  strictness ;  but  even  so  considered  it  may  be 
regarded  as  a  form  or  species  of  praise. 

In  the  dog  there  exists  not  only  a  necessity  for  loving  or 
bestowing  its  superabundant  love  on  some  object,  worthy  or 
unworthy,  but  there  is  the  same  craving  for  affection  or 
attention,  the  same  necessity  for  love  or  of  being  loved,  that  is 
so  characteristic  of  the  human  child.  This  longing  for  the 
affection  of  its  master  prompts  the  dog  to  seek,  by  all  the 
means  in  its  power,  reconciliation  when  it  has  given  him 
cause  of  offence,  and  feels  that  it  is  in  his  disfavour.  Such 
a  craving  leads  to  efforts — frequently  repeated  and  of  all 
kinds — at  propitiation ;  the  animal  tries  to  deprecate  its 
master's  wrath,  to  ingratiate  itself  once  more  in  or  into  his 
good  graces,  to  obtain  restitution  to  favour — in  other  words, 
to  ensure  forgiveness.  Its  sense  of  sin  or  guilt  is  here  at 
least  associated  with  a  perception  or  feeling  of  the  necessity 
for  or  desirability  of  pardon. 

In  some  cases  the  sinning  animal  seeks  to  make  atonement 
for  its  sin,  as  is  pointed  out  in  other  chapters — for  instance, 

1  <  Prose  Idylls,'  2nd  edit.,  1874,  pp.  24-5. 


IN   OTHER  ANIMALS.  229 

those  on  'Crime5  and  '  Punishment.'  And  among  the  means 
whereby  it  endeavours  to  atone  or  propitiate  is  the  making 
of  offerings  to  the  person  offended  or  supposed  to  be  offended. 
To  us  these  peace  offerings  may  appear  at  first  sight  to  be  of 
a  very  trivial  or  absurd  kind,  as  when  a  cat  offers  a  captured 
mouse  or  rat,  dead  or  living,  to  its  master.  But,  in  judging 
of  the  action  and  its  motive,  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  in 
such  a  case  the  article  offered  is  that  which  is  of  the  highest 
value  in  the  eyes  of  the  offerer ;  and  as  much  as  this  cannot 
certainly  be  said  of  the  propitiatory  offerings,  religious  or 
otherwise,  of  man. 

When  the  dog  has  succeeded  in  reinstating  itself  in 
favour,  when  its  offering  has  been  received  in  the  spirit  in 
which  it  was  made — when,  in  short,  it  is  successful  in  its 
efforts  at  re-establishing  amicable  relations  with  the  being 
whose  slightest  love  it  so  highly  values — the  animal's  delight 
is  unequivocally  expressed;  while,  under  opposite  circum- 
stances, there  is  corresponding  depression,  despondency,  or 
despair,  all  the  shades  of  grief  or  sorrow,  leading  even  to 
fatal  pining  for  the  affection  that  is  refused  or  .withheld. 

Dogs  not  only  worship  man,  but  they  attend  worship  with 
him — take  part  so  far  in  his  religious  observances.  In  doing 
so  the  following  points  are  to  be  specially  noted : — 

1.  The  appropriateness  of  their  behaviour  to  the  place 
and    time,  varying  in  the  case  of  the  dogs  of  Protestant 
and    Catholic    masters    attending    Protestant  or   Catholic 
churches  or  chapels  ;  and — 

2.  The  correct  perception  of  time  and  locality — a  sub- 
ject, however,  that  falls  more  appropriately  to  be  treated  of 
in  another  chapter. 

Church  attendance  by  dogs  is,  and  has  long  been,  a 
common  phenomenon  in  the  pastoral  districts  of  Scotland. 
Scotch  shepherds,  both  in  Highlands  and  Lowlands,  are  a 
devout,  church-attending  race ;  and,  so  far  at  least  as  con- 
cerns regularity  of  attendance  upon  the  ordinances  of 
worship,  and  demure,  decorous  behaviour  thereat,  their 
dogs,  or  '  collies,'  are  equally  devout.  These  Scotch  collies 
frequently  have  particular  seats  or  pews — or  at  least  their 
equivalents,  lairs  or  couching-places — in  church ;  and  there, 


230  EELIGIOUS  FEELING 

when  no  attempt  is  made  by  them — as  it  sometimes  is — at 
psalm-singing,  the  animals  rest  quietly  and  sedately  until  the 
completion  of  the  service.  It  may  be,  and  probably  is,  the  case 
that  they  frequently  coil  themselves  comfortably  and  com- 
pose themselves  to  sleep  as  soon  as  the  service  has  begun  ; 
but  that  a  similar  process  is  quite  as  common  and  much 
more  conspicuous  and  inexcusable  in  man,  I  have  no  room 
for  doubting,  inasmuch  as  I  have  over  and  over  again 
myself  seen  in  country — aye,  and  in  city — churches  in  Scot- 
land people — mostly  males,  be  it  in  fairness  explained — 
deliberately  composing  themselves  for  a  good,  sound  sleep 
before  the  service  begins — a  sleep  so  natural  in  one  sense 
as  to  be  not  unfrequently  accompanied  by  snoring  and  to 
require  vigorous  nudging  or  shaking  to  rouse  from  it. 

We  may  be — and  no  doubt  will  be — told  that  the  shep- 
herd's dog  acquires  the  habit  of  attending  church,  and  of 
behaving  becomingly  therein,  by  mere  imitation  of  its  master. 
And  there  can  be  no  denying  the  important  influence  of 
imitation  in  the  acquisition  of  artificial  habits  by  the  dog 
and  other  animals.  But  many  incidents,  or  classes  of  in- 
cidents, show  that,  in  this  case  of  church  attendance  at  least, 
the  influence  of  man  and  of  mere  imitation  is  apt  to  be 
overrated — is,  in  fact,  really  much  less  than  at  first  sight  it 
appears  to  be — for  church-going  dogs  do  not  by  any  means 
always  or  necessarily  attend  church  with  their  masters. 
They  go  sometimes  in  spite  of,  and  without,  their  master, 
feeling  that  they  are  incurring  his  displeasure  and  a  certain 
punishment  in  doing  so.  Knowing,  by  means  which  we 
must  not  stop  here  to  consider,  Sunday  from  other  days  of  the 
week,  and  the  proper  hours  of  public  worship  on  Sunday ; 
quite  familiar  with  the  road  to  church  and  with  the  topo- 
graphy of  the  church  itself;  quite  aware,  further,  that  it  is 
their  master's  wish  or  intention  to  prevent  their  going  to 
church  on  Sundays — many  astute  dogs,  determined,  for  their 
own  reasons,  to  have  their  own  way,  have  disappeared  on 
Saturdays,  have  secreted  themselves  in  order  to  escape  im- 
prisonment in  a  kennel  or  elsewhere,  and  have  made  or 
found  their  way  to  and  from  church  quite  alone.  Southey 
tells  the  story  of  a  Methodist's  dog  *  who  regularly  went  to 


IN   OTHER  ANIMALS.  231 

chapel,  though  pelted  by  the  church  boys  for  so  doing.  His 
master  ....  never  went ;  and  the  interpretation  put  upon 
the  dog's  conduct  was  that  he  wished  to  attract  his  master  ' 
to  church  attendance.  It  is  at  least  a  coincidence  that  when 
his  master  met  with  an  accidental  death  by  drowning,  the 
animal  ceased  to  attend  chapel.  Dr.  Macaulay  too  speaks 
of  many  church-going  collies  as  '  more  regular  attendants 
than  their  masters.' 

It  is  obvious  that,  in  many  cases  at  least,  such  dogs 
value  church  attendance  as  a  privilege,  for  which  they  are 
prepared  to  make,  and  do  make,  great  sacrifices.  Not  only 
do  they  travel  long  distances  afoot  in  all  weathers,  but  they 
deprive  themselves  of  shelter  and  food,  and  expose  them- 
selves to  their  masters'  wrath,  and  to  the  certainty  rather 
than  the  risk  of  ignominious  punishments.  Whatever, 
then,  be  the  dog's  motive  in  attending  church  under  such 
circumstances,  it  would  appear  to  be  at  least  a  strong  one. 
It  may  be  a  love  of  society,  either  of  its  own  kind  or  of 
man;  for  in  wild  'pastoral  regions,  where  population  is 
sparse,  the  Sunday  congregations  of  farmers,  shepherds, 
peasants,  and  their  dogs  constitute  one  of  the  very  rare  and 
favourable  opportunities  of  meeting  with  their  kind.  It 
may  be  an  allied  dread  of  monotony,  a  longing  for  relaxation 
of  a  certain  kind,  a  l<yve  of  novelty  and  variety.  If  such 
motives  operate — as  is  quite  likely — it  cannot  truthfully  be 
averred  that  they. do  not  also  operate  largely — sometimes,  it 
may  be,  exclusively — in  the  church-going  of  man  himself. 

We  know,  as  Hood  says,  that 

A  daw's  not  reckoned  a  religious  bird 
Because  it  keeps  a-cawing  from  a  steeple. 

Nor  is  a  shepherd's  collie  to  be  considered  religious  simply 
because  it  regularly  attends  church,  even  at  great  personal 
sacrifice,  risk,  or  inconvenience  sometimes.  So  long  ago  as 
1791  Salmagundi  thus  remarked  of  'a  favourite  dog,  who 
regularly  accompanied  his  mistress  to  church ' : — 

Tis  held  by  folks  of  deep  research 
He's  a  good  dog  who  goes  to  church : 

As  good  I  hold  him  every  whit 
Who  tStays  at  home  and  turns  the  spit ; 

For  though  good  dogs  to  church  may  go, 
Yet  going  there  don't  make  them  so. 


232  RELIGIOUS  FEELING 

And  the  same  may  be  quite  as  truly  said  of  their  masters ; 
they  may  be  good,  pious  men,  but  it  is  not  the  going  to 
church  that  constitutes  either  goodness  or  piety.  In  so  far, 
however,  as  mere  church  attendance,  the  observance  of  rites 
or  ceremonies,  seriousness  of  look  or  demeanour,  are  to  be 
accepted  as  outward  marks  of  religion  or  religiousness  in 
man,  there  is  no  good  reason,  but  the  reverse,  why  they 
should  not  equally  be  accepted  as  evidences  of  religion  in 
the  dog;  for,  as  has  already  been  seen,  the  lower  animal 
makes  sacrifices  of  a  kind  that  is  at  least  uncommon  in  man 
in  order  to  obtain  the  much-coveted  privilege. 

Scotch  shepherds'  collies  are  not,  however,  the  only  dogs 
that  have  been  popularly,  and  with  a  certain  degree  of 
propriety,  denominated  '  religious.'  In  France,  a  Catholic 
country,  dogs  attend  prayers  or  mass  with  their  masters, 
exhibiting  in  the  grand  cathedrals  of  that  beautiful  land  a 
becoming  behaviour,  including  gravity  of  look  and  de- 
meanour, silence  and  motionlessness,  an  attitude  of  apparent 
attention  or  intentness,  and  a  probable  feeling  of  awe,  pro- 
duced, it  may  be,  by  the  'dim  religious  light*  of  such 
edifices,  or  by  the  varied,  impressive  sights  and  sounds  that 
environ  them — a  kind  of  conduct,  in  short,  only  too  in- 
structive or  suggestive  to  irreverent  man  (Pierquin  and 
Watson).  It  would  appear  further  that  in  Catholic 
countries  imitation  of  man  leads  church-going  dogs  to  the 
stage  of  fasting  (Southey).  So  that  Catholic  and  Protestant 
dogs  may  be  spoken  of  with  somewhat  of  propriety — the 
one  group  fasting  and  attending  mass  and  all  church 
festivals,  like  Catholics ;  the  other  going  to  the  kirk  and 
sometimes  at  least  attempting  psalm-singing,  like  Protest- 
ants or  Presbyterians. 

Nor  are  dogs  the  only  animals  that  may  claim  occasion- 
ally to  be  considered  '  pious.'  While  collies  regularly  attend 
church  they  cannot  be  said,  as  a  rule,  to  take  any  active 
or  intelligent  part  in  the  service;  but  in  the  case  of  the 
parrot,  which  is  not  usually  allowed  to  attend  church,  the 
bird  not  unfrequently  takes  a  prominent  and  certainly  in- 
telligent part  in  the  private  worship  of  its  master's  house- 
hold. Such  parrots,  for  instance,  make  responses  at  the 


IN  OTHER  ANIMALS.  233 

proper  time — an  exercise  that  implies  a  good  deal  more  than 
mere  memory,  mere  attention  to  the  service.  They  have 
been  taught,  moreover,  or  they  have  learned,  to  repeat  man's 
creeds,  to  recite  prayers,  and  even,  or  otherwise  in  a  certain 
sense,  to  act  as  domestic  chaplains — as  substitutes,  in  other 
words,  for  man  himself.  As  in  so  many  other  cases,  the 
behaviour — nay,  the  very  speech — the  remarks  or  conversation 
of  the  bird,  are  suitable  to  place,  time,  and  other  circum- 
stances. Thus  a  certain  English  bishop's  parrot  is  (or  was) 
in  the  habit  of  saying — sometimes  quite  devoutly  and  with 
becoming  solemnity,  at  other  times  sarcastically  or  ironi- 
cally, but  in  either  case  at  proper  seasons  and  appropriately 
to  the  circumstances — 'Let  us  pray.'  Of  another  we  are 
told  that  it  '  could  sing  in  correct  time  and  measure — 

« There  is  a  happy  land.' 


EDUCATION   AND   ITS   KESULTS. 

CHAPTER    VII. 

CAPACITY   FOR   EDUCATION. 

IT  must  be  utterly  fatal  to  the  supposition,  hitherto  so 
popular,  that  instinct  is  immutable,  being  already  perfect,  if 
it  can.  be  shown,  as  it  very  readily  can  be,  that  the  moral 
and  intellectual  faculties  of  the  lower  animals  are  capable  of 
improvement  to  a  high  degree,  that  there  are  ample  evidences 
among  them  of  very  marked  progress  in  skill,  ingenuity, 
adaptiveness,  caution,  and  other  mental  qualities  or  apti- 
tudes. This  mental  improvement  or  progress  includes  even 
the  acquisition  of  new  faculties,  the  development  of  those 
which  are  latent,  with  the  perfecting  of  others. 

What  has  been  spoken  of  as  mental  potentiality,  the 
capability  of  progressive  improvement,  has  long  been  regarded 
as  one  of  the  many  features  that  distinguish  man  from  other 
animals.  It  is  just  as  absurdly  assumed,  however,  that  in 
man  there  is  a  possible  perfectibility  of  his  moral  or  intellec- 
tual nature  as  that  in  other  animals  there  is  no  moral  or 
intellectual  nature  to  be  cultivated  or  developed.  The  truth 
is  that  in  both  cases  there  are  moral  and  intellectual  powers, 
capable  of  cultivation ;  that  in  both  perfection  is  practically 
unattainable — certainly  has  never  been  attained ;  that  in 
both,  and  especially  as  regards  the  lower  animals,  the  limit 
already  attained  is  not  that  which  is  attainable.  It  cannot 


CAPACITY   FOR  EDUCATION.  235 

be  said  that  man  has  improved  his  mental  faculties  beyond 
a  certain  point;  his  greatest  admirer  can  scarcely  claim  for. 
him  perfection  either  moral  or  intellectual;  and  evidences 
are  constantly  being  brought  before  us  of  the  decided  limi- 
tation of  intellectual  or  moral  improvement  in  various  savage 
races.  With  them  the  experiment  has  been  tried  over  and 
over  again  of  '  civilising '  them,  and  has  failed.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  may  be  most  truthfully  asserted  that  the  lower  ani- 
mals have  not  yet  had  the  benefit  of  the  persistent,  patient, 
kindly  efforts  of  man  to  develope  their  moral  or  intellectual 
nature.  The  degree  of  mental  cultivation  which  is  possible 
in  their  case  has  not  yet  been  properly  tested  or  realised  ; 
their  mental  potentialities  are  therefore  as  yet  almost  un- 
known. We  have  yet  to  determine  in  them  what  are  the 
new  powers  they  are  capable  of  acquiring ;  what  latent  facul- 
ties may  be  developed ;  what  is  the  nature  of  certain  apti- 
tudes that  they  appear  to  possess,  but  of  whose  character 
and  modus  operandi  we  are  at  present  ignorant ;  and  what  is 
the  probable  limitation  of  their  progressibility  or  improv- 
ability.  These  form  most  interesting  problems  in  the  com- 
parative psychology  of  the  future. 

Concerning  the  non-improvability,  the  non-progressiveness, 
of  savage  man,  his  incapacity  for  education  or  civilisation, 
recent  testimony  concerning  the  African  negro  has  been  laid 
before  the  world  by  Livingstone,  Monteiro,  Burton,  Baker, 
and  other  travellers.  Livingstone  tells  us  that  '  a  gentleman 
of  superior  abilities  has  devoted  life  and  fortune  to  elevate 
the  Johanna  men,  but  fears  that  they  are  an  unimprovable 
race/  Monteiro  « has  but  a  poor  opinion  of  the  capacity  of 
the  African,  and  but  little  hope  for  his  future.  He  believes 
that  all  the  efforts  hitherto  made  to  elevate  and  civilise  him 
have  failed,  and  his  conclusions  on  the  subject  coincide 
essentially  with  those  of  Burton  and  with  those  of  most 
other  authorities  who  have  examined  it  dispassionately 
('  Nature  ').  Monteiro  himself  says,  '  I  can  see  no  hope  of 
the  negro  ever  attaining  to  any  considerable  degree  of  civili- 
sation, owing  to  his  incapacity  for  spontaneously  developing 
to  a  higher  or  more  perfect  condition.  .  .  .  The  negro  must 
ever  remain  as  he  has  always  been,  and  as  he  is  at  the  present 
day.' 


236  CAPACITY  FOR  EDUCATION. 

But  incapacity  for  education  or  improvement  is  not  con- 
fined to  the  African  negro,  nor  to  savage  races  of  man ;  it 
occurs  also  amidst  our  highest  civilisation — for  instance,  in 
the  idiot,  or  at  least  in  certain  kinds  or  classes  of  idiots,  at 
certain  stages  or  in  certain  states  of  idiocy  (Browne,  Ire- 
land, De  Vitre).  It  occurs  also  in  many  other  forms  of  men- 
tal defect  or  derangement,  in  many  criminals,  perhaps  in 
whole  classes  of  our  criminals,  and  in  certain  wild  children. 

Incapacity  for  civilisation  would  also  appear  to  be  a  cha- 
racteristic of  certain  classes  among  ourselves  who  belong  to 
none  of  the  categories  just  above  enumerated.  There  are  in 
various  parts  of  our  own  country,  even  in  the  hearts  of  our 
great  cities,  whole  ranks  or  classes  of  the  community  who 
may  fitly  be  denominated  white  savages,  the  savages  of  our 
boasted  civilisation.  Of  a  specimen  or  type  of  these  savages, 
dwelling  in  our  midst,  within  hearing  or  easy  reach  of  count- 
less churches  and  other  agencies  of  Christianisation  and 
civilisation — certain  cave  inhabitants  of  Caithness,  Scotland 
— Dr.  Mitchell,  of  Edinburgh,  reports  as  follows  : — '  The  low 
and  sedimentary  [intelligence  and  morals]  were  not  due  to 
the  want  of  cultivation  so  much  as  to  the  inability  to  receive 
culture.  Indeed,  speaking  of  this  class  as  a  whole,  it  might 
be  said  they  were  not  so  much  uncivilised  as  uncivilisable.' l 
And  as  to  this  Dr.  Mitchell  is  a  competent  judge,  for  as  one 
of  H.M.  Commissioners  in  Lunacy  for  Scotland  he  is  familiar 
with  all  the  phases  of  human  idiocy,  and  with  the  extent  to 
which  certain  idiots  even  may  be  educated  or  civilised. 

Incapability  of  improvement  by  education  is  seen  also  in 
certain  animals  with  defective  or  disordered  mental  faculties. 
The  subject  is  treated  of  in  the  chapters  on  'Stupidity,' 
'  Error,'  and  *  Mental  Derangement.' 

In  other  cases  the  capacity  for  learning,  for  profiting  by 
tuition  of  whatever  kind,  is  curiously  limited,  many  animals, 
like  many  men,  being  able  to  learn  only  certain  things  or 
kinds  of  things.  There  are  apparently  special  kinds  or  direc- 
tions of  intelligence,  that  require  a  C9rrespondingly  special 
education  for  their  due  development.  In  certain  dogs  and  in 

1  « Daily  Review  '  report  of  a  lecture  delivered  in  Edinburgh  in  February 
1877. 


CAPACITY  FOE  EDUCATION.  237 

certain  other  animals  there  are  special  natural  talents  which 
must  be  discovered  in  order  to  be  cultivated  by  man,  and 
which  are  frequently  discovered  and  successfully  cultivated, 
to  their  gain,  by  the  enterprising  trainers  of  *  performing ' 
or  '  learned '  animals.  Hence  an  animal's  education  is  some- 
times specially  theatrical  or  arithmetical,  musical  or  gym- 
nastic, while  every  such  specialisation  of  instruction  implies 
a  certain  basis  of  general  education.  Thus  the  sporting  dog 
has  what  may  be  termed  its  technical  orprofessional  education  ; 
its  discipline  is  directed  and  adapted  to  the  nature  of  the 
special  sport,  occupation,  or  employment  in  which  it  is  to  be 
engaged  (Walsh). 

But,  as  a  general  rule,  there  is  wonderful  capacity  for 
mental  progress  under  training  among  the  lower  animals — 
singular  moral  and  intellectual  plasticity,  ready  response  to 
all  efforts  or  circumstances  that  lead  to  evolution  of  their 
varied  faculties,  whether  of  mind  or  body.  There  is  a  speedy 
or  gradual  acquisition  of  knowledge,  usually  of  a  practical 
kind,  and  a  due  application  of  that  knowledge  to  circum- 
stances. Further,  the  modes  of  acquiring  their  knowledge, 
of  whatever  kind,  are  the  same  as  in  man.  In  the  first 
place,  a  high  degree  of  general  intelligence  is  necessarily 
involved,  while  the  following  special  faculties  are  called  into 
play  :— 

Observation.  Comparison. 

Investigation.  Judgment. 

Experiment.  Imagination. 

Attention.  Volition. 

Imitation.  Emotion. 

Memory.  Patience. 

Perception  of  error.  Perseverance. 

Self- correction.  Zeal. 

The  practising  of  lessons.  Diligence. 

Reflection. 

The  education  of  the  lower  animals  is  divisible,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  child,  into  that  which  is — 

1.  Physical  or  bodily,  tending  to  the  development  of 
muscular  activity  as  well  as  to  general  healthiness  of  body, 
and  necessarily  also  of  mind. 


238  CAPACITY  FOE  EDUCATION. 

2.  Intellectual,  tending   to   the   development   of  mental 
cleverness,  of  sagacity,  ingenuity,  adaptiveness. 

3.  Moral,  tending  to  goodness  of  disposition,  to  the  evo- 
lution of  such  virtues  as  self-control,  self-sacrifice,  integrity. 

It  is  in  regard  to  the  last  of  these  three  forms  of  educa- 
tion that  the  chances  of  future  progress  and  success  are 
greatest.  It  is  in  this  direction  that  least  has  been  done  by 
man,  if  anything  can  be  said  to  have  been  done  at  all.  Much 
has  been  done,  much  is  being  constantly  done,  by  foolish 
man,  ignorant  of  his  own  best  interests,  to  deteriorate  the 
moral  character  of  subject  animals  by  his  own  evil  example 
or  by  his  injudicious  treatment.  But  he  does  nothing  sys- 
tematically to  improve  it.  While  he  spends  infinite  pains  on 
the  production  and  improvement  of  breeds  of  dogs  or  pigeons, 
specially  keen  of  sight  or  scent,  or  specially  dowered  with 
speed,  he  gives  himself  no  concern  about  his  companions  or 
pets  being  morally  good.  And  yet  it  is  quite  as  easy  to  pro- 
duce moral  goodness  as  physical  agility  or  intellectual  ability. 
Not  only  so,  but  man  has  it  in  his  power,  by  applying  the 
proper  correctives  to  the  moral  vices  he  has  himself  created 
in  other  animals,  to  substitute  moral  goodness  for  moral 
badness,  moral  virtue  for  moral  vice.  He  may  reform  and 
restore  to  the  paths  of  rectitude  animals  that  are  morally  in 
the  position  of  the  'gutter  children  '  that  become  the  in- 
mates of  our  reformatories  of  all  kinds.  Thus  dogs  that 
have  been  taught  by  him  to  steal  may  be  cured  of  the  bad 
habit  by  care,  and  honesty  substituted  (Watson). 

The  most  promising  of  all  animals  on  whom  to  try  the 
effects  of  moral  education  are  the  anthropoid  apes,  such  as 
the  orang  and  chimpanzee.  We  know  how  humanlike  has 
been  their  behaviour  when  they  have  been  civilised  by  man, 
made  his  servants  or  companions  on  board  ship  or  in  his 
household.  We  know  how  in  them  politeness  or  refinement 
of  manners  may  be  developed,  and  all  the  usages  of  good 
society  ;  how  they  can  behave  at  table  and  take  their  meals ; 
how  they  can  act  as  substitutes  for  the  negro  in  various 
kinds  of  domestic  or  other  service.  But  we  do  not  yet  know 
how  good  they  can  be  made,  to  what  extent  or  in  what 
directions  their  moral  nature  may  be  developed.  I  believe 


CAPACITY  FOR  EDUCATION.  239 

that,  could  only  they  be  induced  to  bestow  them,  the  patient 
efforts  of  our  missionaries  in  this  direction — on  our  anthro- 
poid *  poor  relations '  instead  of  on  their  fellow-creatures  and 
countrymen  the  negro — might  produce  results  of  a  startling 
character — results  that  might  put  an  end,  once  and  for  all, 
to  current  sneers  as  to  the  psychical  connection  between 
men  and  monkeys. 

At  present  aptitude  to  receive  instruction,  readiness  to 
repay  tuition,  capacity  for  education — whether  moral,  intel- 
lectual, or  physical — is  supposed  to  be  greatest  in  the  dog. 
But  this  is  probably  simply  because  man's  efforts  have  been 
chiefly  expended  upon  him ;  that  he  comes  most  constantly 
and  intimately  in  contact  with  man,  and  that  he  is  therefore 
best  known  to  man.  Remarkable  facility  in  learning  man's 
lessons  is  known  to  exist  also  in  the  parrot  and  bullfinch,  and 
in  certain  other  song  birds.  But  we  cannot  at  present  be 
said  to  possess  a  satisfactory  knowledge  of  the  relative 
capacity  of  different  animal  genera  and  species  for  education. 
Of  the  differing  capacity  of  individuals  of  the  same  species 
we  know  much  more — know,  in  fact,  a  good  deal — know  that 
it  occurs  to  the  same  extent  as  in  man — a  circumstance  that 
is  familiar  to  all  trainers  of  horses,  dogs,  or  other  animals. 
This  branch  of  the  subject  is  again  and  more  fully  referred 
to  in  the  chapter  on  *  Individuality.' 

The  proper  education  of  the  lower  animals  requires — 

1.  Certain  qualifications  in  the  teacher. 

2.  Certain  aptitudes  in  the  pupil. 

3.  Certain  other  favourable  circumstances  in  external  or 
surrounding  conditions. 

The  trainer,  in  the  first  place,  must  make  all  due  allow- 
ance for  individuality,  for  the  natural  mental  aptitudes  of 
his  pupils,  for  their  natural  courage,  sagacity,  and  other 
qualities  of  character;  and,  in  proportion  as  he  makes  a 
preliminary  and  special  study  of  this  individuality,  is  he 
likely  to  be  successful  in  his  results. 

The  necessity  of  attending  to  individuality,  of  studying 
individual  character  or  disposition,  becomes  apparent  in — 

1.  Zoological  gardens  and  menageries. 

2.  Lion-taming  and  similar  public  exhibitions. 

17 


Z40  CAPACITY  FOR  EDUCATION. 

3.  The  instruction  of  all  classes  of  performing  animals. 

4.  Horse  and  dog  training. 

In  the  training  of  animals  destined  for  any  of  the 
*  learned  professions' — the  professions  that  subserve  the 
purposes  of  human  exhibitors — the  first  procedure  (and  a 
most  important  preliminary  it  is)  is  to  test  the  mental  capa- 
city, the  disposition  or  character,  of  various  individuals  of  a 
species,  selecting  those  which  promise  to  learn  quickly  and 
become  submissive  readily. 

Both  in  the  human  child  and  in  other  animals  man's  first 
efforts  at  education  are  necessarily  experimental  or  tentative, 
his  object,  and  the  result,  being  to  distinguish  those  indi- 
viduals who  can  from  those  who  cannot  be  educated,  those 
who  will  repay  his  continued  efforts  from  those  on  whom  they 
would  be  wasted.  Thus,  in  selecting  horses  for  circus  pur- 
poses, Franconi,  Astley,  Ducrow,  Cooke,  and  other  circus  pro- 
prietors have  found,  to  their  cost,  that  out  of  many  trials  only 
a  few  animals  are  sufficiently  intelligent  for  their  purposes. 
And  the  same  has  also  been  the  case  with  the  trainers  of 
other  '  performing '  animals. 

The  teacher  must  even  be  guided  by  the  mood  or  humour 
of  his  animal  pupils  for  the  moment.  Song  birds  are  fre- 
quently '  not  in  song ' — not  in  a  humour  for  it,  just  as  the 
talking  parrot  is  often  least  disposed  to  exhibit  his  gift  when 
it  is  most  desirable  or  desired  that  he  should  exhibit  it. 

In  the  next  place  man's  training  cannot  begin  too  early : 
his  pupils  cannot  be  too  young.  *  Learn  young,  learn  fair ' 
is  as  applicable  to  other  animals  as  to  man.  Another  even 
more  apposite  proverb  reminds  us  that  we  cannot  '  teach  an 
old  dog  new  tricks.'  Education,  to  be  thoroughly  successful — 
to  give  pupil  and  teacher  equally  fair  play,  to  enable  the 
latter  to  develope  the  best  features  of  character  in  the  former — 
must  begin  in  youth,  during  the  impressionable  stage  of 
existence,  before  counteracting  habits  have  been  acquired  or 
antagonistic  experience  gained.  Thus  the  simple  secret  of 
taming  and  training  wild  animals  as  companions  to  children 
is  to  catch  them  very  young — in  their  infantile  stage — and  to 
bring  them  up  along  with  the  children  by  the  same  process 
of  education — a  combination  of  kindness  with  firmness. 


CAPACITY  FOR  EDUCATION.  241 

Next,  training  must  be  by  stages — gradual,  progressive, 
pari  passu  with,  the  aptitude  of  the  pupil,  his  acquisition  of 
knowledge  and  the  power  of  applying  it. 

The  trouble  that  is  necessary  at  one  stage  may  not  be  so 
at  another.  Laborious  instruction  in  every  detail  may  be 
required  at  first,  then  careful  and  constant  supervision, 
while  at  last  the  desire  to  learn  and  the  aptitude  for  learning 
may  become  such  that  the  intelligent  animal  works  by  itself. 

Then  education  cannot  be  too  systematic  and  thorough. 
So  systematic  is  it  in  some  cases — for  instance,  in  the  training 
of  piping  bullfinches  in  some  parts  of  Germany  and  the  Tyrol 
— that  there  are  regular  schools,  seminaries,  or  academies, 
with  regular  classes  of  scholars,  according  to  their  stages  of 
progress,  presided  over  by  head  masters,  assisted  by  tutors,  the 
pupils  being  scolded  or  rewarded  according  to  their  deserts — 
the  nature  of  their  performances.  In  Belgium,  again,  there 
are  schools  for  the  training  of  home-flying  pigeons ;  while 
regular  training  stations  have  been  established  by  Germany 
for  homing  pigeons  at  Metz,  Strasburg,  Coblentz,  Mayence, 
Berlin,  and  elsewhere.  In  our  own  country  certain  stables 
and  kennels  may  be  considered  academies  for  the  regular 
training  of  race-horses  and  sporting  dogs. 

There  is,  then,  a  regular  course,  series,  or  system  of  lessons 
in  the  '  breaking  in '  of  horses  and  dogs,  and  in  the  training 
of  carrier  pigeons,  and  of  the  race-horse  or  of  the  working 
elephant. 

The  teacher  himself  should  possess  personal  qualities  of 
a  kind  that  render  him  specially  suited  for  the  work  he  has 
undertaken.  These  qualities  include — 

1.  Good  temper,  involving  forbearance,  patience,  gentle- 
ness, kindliness. 

2.  Sympathy  for  and  with  his  pupils. 

3.  A  knowledge  of  the  capacities  of  his  pupils,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  of  the  principles  of  education  on  the  other. 

4.  Tact — in  the  ready  power  of  adaptation  to  the  moods 
and  character  of  his  pupils,  to  time  and  place,  and  other  cir- 
cumstances— in   the  power  of  gaining  confidence,  esteem, 
affection. 

5.  The  necessary  kind  and  degree  of  firmness. 


242  CAPACITY  FOR  EDUCATION. 

6.  Perseverance,  like  patience,  may  have  to  be  infinite. 

7.  Persuasiveness — the  use  of  encouragement  or  coaxing. 

These  must  form  the  basis  of  the  best  systems  of  educa- 
tion, whether  of  other  animals  or  of  the  human  child.  Berke- 
ley advocates  in  the  training  of  sporting  dogs  a  combination 
of  kindness,  firmness,  and  persuasion. 

On  the  part  of  the  pupils  there  must  be  a  basis  of  recepti- 
vity, aptitude,  or  capacity,  the  power  of  application,  involving 
sufficient  force  of  will ;  and  there  should  also  be  willingness  to 
learn,  and  effort  in  learning.  It  is  the  combination  of  these 
good  qualities  that  leads  so  many  intelligent  animals — the 
elephant,  dog,  parrot — to  practise  their  lessons,  to  make  effort, 
and  persistent  effort,  at  self-improvement. 

Among  the  conditions  favourable  to  systematic  education 
by  man  are  time,  the  absence  of  distraction,  and  the  incessant 
repetition  of  his  lessons.  There  is  an  obvious  necessity  for 
time  in  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  or  skill.  Results  can- 
not be  achieved  at  once ;  they  may  be  rapid  in  their  growth 
in  some  cases,  but  more  commonly  they  are  gradual,  even 
slow,  so  that  it  is  not  till  an  animal  has  arrived  at  maturity, 
or  even  old  age,  that  it  has  duly  learned,  and  learned  to  profit 
by,  the  lessons  either  of  man  or  of  experience.  Many  ani- 
mals have  to  serve  an  apprenticeship  in  the  detection  of 
danger,  and  the  means  of  avoiding  or  escaping  it  in  construc- 
tive and  defensive  operations. 

Time  is  obviously  requisite  for  the  learning  of  lessons,  in 
successive  series,  as  requisite  as  in  the  case  of  the  human  child. 
Much  depends,  as  regards  the  duration  of  training,  on  the 
character  of  the  teacher,  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  the  pupil  on 
the  other,  as  well  as  on  the  nature  of  the  accomplishment  to 
be  acquired — the  lessons  to  be  learned.  Thus  while  it  may 
reasonably  be  expected  that  all  animals  of  average  capacity 
will  more  or  less  speedily  learn  to  fly  or  run,  to  catch  prey,  to 
kill  and  eat  it,  to  select  and  collect  food,  it  must  take  a  much 
longer  period  to  teach  man's  words  or  songs,  to  enable  them  to 
find  their  way  home  from  great  distances,  to  act  in  concert,  to 
play  parts,  to  subdue  or  control  their  natural  strong  passions 
or  propensities. 

The  work  of  tuition  and  of  learning  implies  time  and 
trouble  on  the  parts  both  of  pupil  and  teacher.  There  must 


CAPACITY  FOE  EDUCATION.  243 

be  no  mental  distraction  on  the  pupil's  part ;  he  must  give  his 
attention  wholly  to  his  lessons  for  the  moment.  In  particular 
there  must  be  no  disturbing  sensorial  impressions,  espe- 
cially of  vision  or  hearing ;  all  sights  and  sounds,  save  those 
with  which  it  is  desired  to  impress  the  pupil,  must  for  the  time 
be  rigidly  excluded.  And  this  is  so  well  known  to  trainers, 
for  instance,  of  song  birds,  that  they  resort  sometimes  to 
cruel  methods  of  securing  the  end  desired.  Hence  the  prac- 
tice of  artificially  blinding  song  birds.  Hence  the  fact  that 
in  confinement  song  birds  learn  singing  better  than  they  do 
at  liberty.  There  are,  therefore,  favourable  and  unfavourable 
times  and  places,  circumstances  or  conditions,  for  successful 
instruction. 

The  use  and  disuse  of  faculties,  as  of  organs,  produce  the 
same  results  as  in  man,  of  increased  or  diminished  power. 
Hence  the  advantage  and  importance  of  continual  exercise 
of  certain  acquired  aptitudes  or  faculties,  an  importance  or 
necessity  recognised  sometimes  by  the  animals  themselves  in 
their  aiming  at  perfection  or  excellence — for  instance,  in  song. 
Sporting  dogs  forget  their  special  accomplishments  from 
want  of  practice  (Walsh). 

Discrimination  must  be  shown  in  adapting  the  form  of 
training  or  teaching  to  the  nature  of  the  animal  to  be  taught. 
It  is  obvious  that  a  perfectly  wild  animal  requires  more  care 
and  trouble  than  the  offspring  of  a  domesticated  one,  which 
has  the  advantage  of  certain  inherited  aptitudes.  And  the 
same  comparative  difficulty  exists  in*  the  case  of  mature  or 
elderly  animals  and  those  that  are  naturally  stupid  or  unin- 
telligent. 

The  influence  of  example  and  of  imitation  is  illustrated 
in  all  forms  of  upbringing  of  the  lower  animals,  as  of  man 
himself.  Of  him  it  was  long  ago  truly  said — 

Exemplo  plusquam  rations  vivimus. 

Hence  the  importance  of  placing  before  the  young  animal  a 
proper  model,  and  hence  also  the  importance  of  man's  own 
behaviour  before  it  being  guarded  and  becoming. 

It  is  always  important  that  there  should  be  a  mutual  un- 
derstanding between  teacher  and  pupil,  who  frequently  become 


244  CAPACITY  FOR  EDUCATION. 

master  and  servant.  This  is  so  obviously  an  advantage  in 
the  case  of  the  sportsman  and  his  dogs  that  it  is  desirable 
their  lessons  should  be  learned  together  (Walsh) ;  there 
should  be  a  conjoint  education,  so  that  the  servant  may  as 
thoroughly  understand  the  capabilities  of  his  master  as  the 
latter  those  of  his  servant.  Hence  the  advantage  of  the 
training  by  their  owners  themselves  of  sporting  dogs.  There 
are  some  excellent  well-bred  sporting  dogs,  as  there  are 
horses,  that  only  work  properly  under  or  with  a  master, 
whom  they  can  respect,  in  whom  they  have  confidence — con- 
fidence not  in  his  kindness,  but  in  his  skill  as  a  sportsman  or 
rider.  Nor  must  it  be  lost  sight  of  that  there  is  frequent 
congeniality  of  pursuit ;  the  horse  or  dog  may  become  as  fond 
of  the  race  or  chase  as  the  huntsman ;  and  wherever  this 
common  love  or  interest  in  the  work  exists,  the  work  itself, 
whatever  it  be,  is  likely  to  be  thoroughly  well  done,  equally 
by  man,  horse,  and  dog.  Mutual  confidence  and  affection 
beget  improvement  of  the  moral  character,  as  well  as  of  cer- 
tain mental  aptitudes,  of  both  master  and  animal  com- 
panion or  servant,  a  circumstance  frequently  observed  in 
the  relation  of  man  to  his  horse  or  dog.  • 

The  lessons  of  life  learned  by  the  lower  animals  may  be 
either — 

1.  Those  taught  by  experience,  including  need  or  neces- 
sity, frequently  dearly  bought. 

2.  Those  taught  by  their  parents,  elders,  seniors,  or  com- 
panions, and  insisted  upt>n  by  penalties. 

3.  Those  taught  by  man,  inculcated  sometimes  systema- 
tically in  regular  schools. 

4.  Those  self-imposed,  in  the  form  of  lesson  practising  or 
learning. 

Obviously,  then,  such  lessons  may  be  either  deliberately 
taught  and  consciously  acquired,  or  they  may  be  learned 
unconsciously,  as  in  the  case  frequently  of  the  influence 
of  example  and  imitation.  There  is  an  education  of  this 
kind — one  not  contemplated  by  either  teacher  or  pupil, 
both  of  whom  are  unconscious  agents  in  the  result — in  the 
acquisition  by  foster  young  of  the  habits  of  foster  parents. 
Thus  the  dog  acquires  sometimes  catlike  habits  from  asso- 


CAPACITY  FOR  EDUCATION.  245 

ciation,  from  its  earliest  years,  with  a  cat ;  it  learns,  for 
instance,  to  respect  the  cleanliness  of  the  house,  and  is  itself 
cleanly. 

Equally  in  other  animals  as  in  man,  education  developes 
or  determines  new  tastes,  feelings,  passions,  ideas,  aptitudes, 
habits. 

It  is  important  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  children  of  cer- 
tain savage  races  of  man  receive  no  direct  instruction  from 
their  parents  or  elders.  Imitation,  necessity,  experience, 
practice,  lead  to  a  more  or  less  rapid  acquisition  in  them,  as 
in  so  many  other  animals,  at  once  of  physical  and  mental 
dexterity. 

It  is  well  to  bear  in  mind  also  that  animals  possess  both 
natural  and  artificial  arts  or  aptitudes.  Thus  in  our  pet 
song-birds  singing  is  an  artificial  art,  developed  by  man  by 
culture,  while  dancing  in  certain  birds  is  a  natural  and 
spontaneous  effort  (Houzeau).  Equitation  in  the  ape  is  also 
an  artificial  art,  but  it  is  usually  or  frequently  self-acquired, 
not  taught  by  man  (Houzeau).  So  that  '  artificial '  is  not 
necessarily  synonymous  with  '  taught  by  man.' 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

SELF-EDUCATION:  THE  ACQUISITION  OF  KNOWLEDGE  BY 
INVESTIGATION. 

INVESTIGATION  on  the  part  of  the  lower  animals,  usually  in 
order  to  the  acquisition,  extension,  or  improvement  of  know- 
ledge, includes  the  following  features  of  interest  in  their 
mental  character — the  following  aptitudes  or  conditions  : — 

1.  The  faculty  of  observation:    its   nicety,   minuteness, 
accuracy,   acuteness,   delicacy,   closeness   or  keenness,   in- 
cluding the  comparison  of  resemblances  and  differences. 

2.  The  power  of  attention,  and  of  concentration  and  con- 
tinuance thereof. 

3.  The  practice  of  examination  or  inspection  of  unfamiliar 
objects,  including — 

a.  Reconnoitring  and  surveying. 
6.  Search  and  exploration, 
c.  Deliberate  study. 

4.  Curiosity  or  inquisitiveness ;  associated  with  a — 

5.  Love  of  knowledge,  especially  of  such  a  kind  as  will 
bear  on  the  physical  requirements,  comforts,  or  safety  of  the 
animal  itself. 

6.  The  application  of  experimental  tests,  with — 

7.  Repetition  and  variation  of  effort  therein. 

8.  The  power  of  memory. 

9.  The  influence  of  novelty  of  scene,  sight,  sound,  or  other 
external  conditions. 

10.  The  drawing  of  inferences  or  conclusions  from  the 
results  of  observation  and  experiment. 

11.  Due  reflection  and  reasoning  on  the  bearings  of  such 
results;  and — 


SELF-EDUCATION.  247 

12.  Appropriate  action  following  such  reflection. 

That  many  animals  are  very  observant  scarcely  requires 
to  be  insisted  upon.  Close  and  continuous  observation  is 
indeed  a  necessity  of  their  existence  in  the  wild  state.  Its 
forms,  results,  and  applications  are  illustrated  in  an  infinite 
variety  of  ways,  including  the  following : — 

1.  The  reading  of  a  master's  mood,  intentions,  or  cha- 
racter by  the  dog. 

2.  Notice  of  natural    or    artificial    landmarks    by  the 
homing  carrier  or  courier  pigeon. 

3.  Knowledge  by  birds  of  the  range  of  man's  projectiles. 

4.  Recognition  of — 

a.  Each  other. 

b.  Persons. 

c.  Places. 

d.  Things- 
including  the  discrimination  of — 

e.  Friends  from  foes,  of  strangers  from  acquaintances 

or  kinsmen. 

/.  The  trappings  of  rank,   such  as   livery,  or   the 
dress  of  masters  and  servants,  rich  and  poor. 

5.  Appreciation  of  beauty  of  colour  and  form  in  design, 
including  the  details  of  pattern. 

6.  Selection  of  cards — by  a  knowledge  of  the  marks  they 
bear — by  performing  dogs. 

7.  Notice  of  secret  signs  or  signals  on  the  part  of  other 
performing  animals — signals  unobserved  by  an  audience. 

8.  Detection  of  defect  or  debility,  injury  or  accident, 
mental  or  bodily,  in  their  offspring  or  in  each  other,  also  in 
cases  unobserved  by  man. 

9.  Certain  kinds  of  prevision  or  presentiment. 

10.  Calculation  or  measurement  of  heights  or  distances. 
It  is  impossible  here  to  illustrate  at  any  length  all  of  these 

forms  in  which  animals  manifest  their  power  of  observation, 
but  it  is  desirable  to  notice  shortly  one  or  two  of  them. 
Perhaps  one  of  the  best  and  most  instructive  is  to  be  found 
in  the  phenomena  of  homing,  or  home-finding,  in  the  carrier 
or  courier  pigeon — phenomena  that  but  lately  were  uni- 
versally relegated  to  the  fallacious  category  of  *  unerring 


248  SELF-EDUCATION:   THE  ACQUISITION  OF 

instinct.'  It  has  now  been  proved  to  demonstration  that 
the  flight  of  the  Belgian  or  other  homing  pigeon  is  directed 
solely  by  the  observation  of  landmarks.  It  has  been  found 
inter  alia  that — 

1.  Only  a  proportion  of  the  animals  submitted  to  training 
are  successful  in  their  flights.     These  successful  ones   are 
presumably  the  most  intelligent  and  observant.      In  every 
pigeon  match  many  birds  fail  altogether  in  home-finding. 

2.  Even  the  best  animals  can  fly  only  by  daylight,  when 
landmarks  are  visible.     They  fail  at  night  or  in  fog ;  they 
wait  and  watch  for  daylight  and  a  clear  atmosphere. 

3.  They  lose  themselves,  moreover,  prior  to  the  acqui- 
sition of  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  road. 

4.  The  acquisition  of  this  knowledge  is  gradual,  by  a 
series  of  progressive  lessons,  which  are  learned  thoroughly 
and  easily  in  proportion  to  a  bird's — 

a.  Natural  intelligence. 
6.  Keenness  of  vision. 

c.  Retentiveness  of  memory ;  and  the — 

d.  Intensity  of  its  home  affections  or  the  nature 

of  the  attractions  to  its  native  place. 

Much  more  familiar  than  the  homing  of  pigeons  is  the 
recognition  of  persons  by  a  great  variety  of  animals,  including 
the  dog,  cat,  horse,  mule,  elephant,  cows,  monkeys,  orang, 
hare,  hedgehog,  rats  and  mice,  parrots  and  other  cage  birds, 
crow,  various  fish,  hornets  and  bees. 

All  these  and  other  animals  come  sooner  or  later  to 
know  their  masters  or  mistresses,  those  who  are  kind  or 
cruel  to  them,  from  all  other  persons  ;  and  their  behaviour 
to  strangers  or  enemies  is  very  different  from  what  it  is  to 
those  with  whom  they  are  familiar  and  friendly. 

Thus  Mrs.  Mackellar  tells  us,  'I  have  often  seen  cows 
refuse  to  give  a  drop  of  milk  to  a  stranger — refusing  the  milk 
being  the  revenge  a  cow  takes  if  in  the  sulks.'  And  of  a 
shipboard  pet  hedgehog,  '  I  always  fed  her,  and  she  knew  me 
very  well,  for  she  would  never  put  up  her  bristles  whatever  I 
did  to  her.'  Watson  gives  the  case  of  a  crow  recognising  and 
visiting  a  former  master.  Even  bees  know  their  master  or 
keeper  from  strangers. 


KNOWLEDGE  BY  INVESTIGATION.  249 

Smuggling  dogs  distinguish  custom-house  officers  ('  Percy 
Anecdotes').  Certain  London  railway  dogs  recognise  their 
own  special  friends  among  the  porters  or  other  officers  at  the 
different  stations,  making,  it  is  asserted,  no  mistakes.  Other 
dogs  frequently  distinguish  from  among  other  men  the  mur- 
derer, burglar,  or  thief;  the  butcher  or  dog-stealer;  the  poor 
beggar  or  tramp,  their  master's  inferior,  and  the  well-con- 
ditioned visitor,  their  master's  equal ;  policemen  or  firemen, 
with  their  calling  and  its  object.  Pet  dogs  occasionally  dis- 
cover their  masters'  bodies  on  a  battle-field. 

The  horse  and  the  mule  distinguish  the  semi-nude  red 
native  Indian  from  the  clothed,  civilised  white  man  on  the 
North  American  prairies,  showing  fear  or  suspicion  in  the 
one  case,  confidence  or  unconcern  in  the  other.  The  horse  dis- 
tinguishes its  own  master  and  rider  from  its  master's  domestics 
and  from  crowds  of  other  persons  who  are  strangers  to  it. 
Elephants  recognise  friendly  soldiers  on  the  field  of  battle 
(Pierquin).  The  orang  discriminates  between  native  boys 
and  monkeys,  and  shows  its  pride  by  refusing  to  associate 
with  the  latter  (Cassell). 

It  is  somewhat  singular  that  many  animals,  which  readily 
recognise  persons,  do  not  notice  and  remember  with  equal 
readiness  places,  or  vice  versa.  Thus  the  parrot  shows  a 
decided  power  of  recognising  persons,  and  pigeons  locality, 
but  not  vice  versa  (Darwin). 

Many  animals,  again,  recognise  each  other  as  fully  and 
easily  as  certain  dogs  know  their  masters  or  mistresses. 
And  this  kind  of  recognition  of  comrades  or  kinsmen 
extends  downwards  in  the  zoological  scale  at  least  as  low  as 
insects.  Ants  and  bees,  while  caressing  their  acquaintances, 
deal  summarily  with  strangers,  intruders,  interlopers  of 
all  kinds.  Ants  recognise  their  friends  or  fellows  after 
absence  (Darwin  and  Lubbock),  and  they  distinguish  friends 
from  foes  (Westwood).  Sentinel  bees  know  strangers, 
enemies,  or  intruders,  and  deal  with  them  according  to 
their  character;  they  also  know  the  person  of  their  queen 
(Figuier). 

The  recognition  of  things  and  the  appreciation  of  their 
significance  are  quite  as  common  as  the  recognition  of 


250  SELF-EDUCATION:  THE  ACQUISITION  OF 

persons  and  the  appreciation  of  their  relation  to  the  animal 
observer.  A  terrier  that  had  a  very  marked  attachment  to 
its  master's  house  roused  the  whole  household  one  night 
because  one  of  several  bars  or  bolts  had  not  been  shot  in  the 
front  door — had  been  forgotten,  in  fact,  when  the  door  was 
locked  and  barred  for  the  night  ('  Animal  World '). 

A  deer  hound  of  Berkeley's  knew  whether  its  master  was 
in  or  out  of  the  house  by  looking  for  his  hat  in  the  lobby. 
If  the  hat  was  gone  and  its  master  was  out,  it  went  to  the 
highest  window  in  the  house  and  looked  for  him  in  every 
direction.  Eooks  distinguish  a  man  that  carries  from  one 
who  does  not  carry  a  gun,  regarding  the  one  as  dangerous, 
the  other  as  harmless  (Watson).  A  similar  practical  dis- 
tinction between  armed  and  unarmed  men  is  made  by 
baboons  and  apes,  the  hippopotamus,  eagle,  buzzard,  and 
many  other  animals,  flight  being  a  common  result  in  the  one 
case,  composure  in  the  other.  The  fishing  cormorant  of 
China  knows  its  own  boat — that  to  which  it  is  attached — in  a 
whole  fleet  of  fishing  boats  (Fennel).  The  military  horse 
knows  the  uniform  of  its  regiment.  Many  dogs  recognise 
their  masters'  property  when  stolen  or  lost. 

As  regards  recognition  of  place  or  locality,  very  little 
need  be  said.  So-called  *  railway  dogs '  know  the  several 
railway  stations,  and,  on  stoppage  of  the  train,  get  out  of 
or  remain  in  the  train,  as  the  case  may  be.  Cats  recognise 
home  after  an  absence  (Watson).  Many  migratory  birds 
that  return  year  after  year  to  the  same  nests  or  nesting 
places  must  know  them  by  some  sort  of  headmark.  Bees 
distinguish  their  own  hives  (Kirby  and  Spence). 

It  is  its  keenness  of  observation  that  leads  the  dog  at  once 
to  perceive  anything  unusual  in  its  master's  looks,  manner,  or 
habits,  and  gives  rise  to  suspicion  or  discovery  of  his  in- 
tentions (Houzeau).  And  it  is  the  superior  closeness  of 
observation,  the  more  incessant  carefulness  or  watchfulness, 
on  the  part  of  dogs  and  cats  as  compared  with  man,  that 
lead  him  to  give  the  animals  in  question  credit  for  certain 
kinds  of  presentiment  or  prevision — for  instance,  as  to  threat- 
ened danger. 

Without   any   sort   of  outward   indication,   by  reading 


KNOWLEDGE  BY  INVESTIGATION.  251 

merely  the  scowl  or  the  reverie,  by  interpreting  some  sudden 
change  of  appearance,  manner,  or  habit,  in  connection  per- 
haps with  some  criminal  action  on  its  own  part,  by  the  asso- 
ciation of  ideas  and  the  rapid  drawing  of  inferences,  the  dog 
or  cat  frequently  discovers  that  a  master  has  made  up  his 
mind  to  shoot,  poison,  or  drown  it,  and  the  natural  and 
immediate  action  following  upon  such  inference  from  the 
facts  of  observation  is  getting  out  of  his  way  before  he  can 
put  his  intention  into  shape  or  execution. 

It  is  obvious  that  many  animals  appreciate,  and  must 
therefore  notice,  not  only  general  effect,  but  the  most  minute 
details  that,  in  combination,  produce  this  effect.  We  know 
that  certain  female  birds  at  least  appreciate  patterns  or 
designs — for  instance,  in  carpets  (White) — but  it  has  yet  to 
be  determined  whether  female  birds  pay  attention  to  each 
detail  of  beauty,  of  colour  or  form,  in  the  males  they  admire 
and  select  (Darwin). 

Not  only,  moreover,  do  they  distinguish  colours,  as  many 
animals  much  lower  hi  the  zoological  scale  also  do — for  in- 
stance, bees  and  other  insects — but  various  birds  notice  even 
the  different  shades  of  the  same  colour.  And  it  is  shown 
in  another  chapter  what  is  the  effect  of  pictorial  representa- 
tions of  persons  and  things  on  dogs  and  other  animals. 

It  is  important  here  to  note  that  the  behaviour  of  many 
animals  differs  according  as  they  are,  or  believe  themselves 
to  be,  observed  or  unobserved  by  man  or  by  their  fellows. 
Certain  pet  dogs  have  their  *  company '  as  well  as  their 
natural  manners,  the  former  being  reserved  for  the  human 
society  of  the  drawing-room,  the  latter  being  freely  exhibited 
among  their  own  fellows  beyond  their  mistresses'  ken — for 
these  are  usually  ladies'  dogs  in  every  sense.  The  thievish 
dog  or  cat  steals  only  when  it  is,  or  fancies  itself,  unnoticed. 
Before  or  after  the  act  of  theft  it  may  be  found  sitting  or 
reclining  demurely  and  with  an  air  of  utter  innocence  in  its 
accustomed  place  before  the  parlour  fire,  or  it  may  be  seen 
casting  keen  glances  in  all  directions — in  fact,  reconnoitring 
as  to  the  coast  being  clear,  precisely  as  a  human  smuggler 
would. 

Curiosity,  when  it  dominates  over  caution,  leads  many  an 


252  SELF-EDUCATION  :   THE  ACQUISITION  OF 

unfortunate  animal  into  danger  or  death,  for  man,  especially 
in  the  form  of  the  sportsman,  is  never  slow  to  take  advan- 
tage, for  his  own  ends,  of  the  mental  or  moral  failings  of  the 
lower  animals.  Their  inquisitiveness  is  obviously  based  on — 

1.  Wonder  or  surprise  at  what  is  novel  or  unusual,  and 
on  a — 

2.  Desire  to  know  the  nature  or  properties  of  the  object, 
animate  or  inanimate,  that  begets  this  wonder. 

A  curiosity  or  inquisitiveness,  sometimes  insatiable  and 
demanding  gratification  at  whatever  cost  to  the  animal,  has 
been  described  in  the  dog  (Cobbe),  parrot  (Darwin),  New 
Zealand  water-hen  (Baden  Powell),  walrus,  monkeys  as  a 
tribe,  cormorant  (Cunningham),  goat  (Wood,  Baird),  com- 
mon fox  (Anson),  Magellan  and  Siberian  fox  (Houzeau),  wild 
turkey  and  brent  goose  of  North  America  (Gillmore),  guanaco 
(Darwin,  Cunningham),  ptarmigan  (Gillmore),  orang  (Hou- 
zeau), Polar  bear  (Hayes,  Cassell),  prong-horned  antelope 
of  North  America  (Gillmore),  zebra-ichneumon  of  Central 
Africa  (Schweinfurth),  sheath-bill  of  Kerguelen's  Land,  and 
in  oceanic  birds  and  wilderness  animals  generally — those, 
namely,  in  whom  the  overruling  fear  of  man  has  not  yet 
been  begotten  by  sad  experience. 

Of  the  zebra-ichneumon  Dr.  Schweinfurth  says,  '  I  found 
it  exceedingly  troublesome  on  account  of  the  pertinacious 
curiosity  with  which  it  peeped  into  all  my  cases  and  boxes, 
upset  my  pots,  broke  my  bottles,  with  no  apparent  object  but 
to  investigate  the  contents.' 

Dr.  Hayes  mentions  a  Polar  bear  that  *  seemed  to  be 
fascinated  with  the  steamer,  and  her  curiosity  got  the  better 
of  her  discretion,'  costing  her  the  loss  of  her  own  life  and 
that  of  two  of  her  cubs ;  and  the  same  Arctic  traveller  gives 
other  instances  of  the  same  kind  of  fatal  curiosity  in  the 
same  animal.  The  prong-horned  antelope  is  frequently 
brought  within  range  of  the  sportsman's  rifle  '  by  waving  a 
coloured  handkerchief,  or  other  unknown  object '  (Gillmore). 
Similar  advantage  is' taken  of  the  curiosity  or  wonder  of  the 
wild  turkey  and  brent  goose  to  get  them  within  the  sports- 
man's range.  Of  the  brent  goose  of  Chesapeake  Bay,  Mary- 
land, Gillmore  tells  us  that '  even  while  out  of  sight  .... 


KNOWLEDGE  BY  INVESTIGATION.  253 

it  may  frequently  be  called  within  gunshot  by  waving  a 
pocket  handkerchief.' 

The  guanaco  of  South  America  also  owes  its  capture  by 
the  hunter  to  its  inquisitiveness.  These  hunters  '  lie  on  the 
ground,  kicking  their  legs  in  the  air  and  performing  sundry 
strange  antics.  The  guanaco  cannot  resist  the  temptation 
of  approaching  the  strange  object,  and  is  shot  by  the  hunter 
as  soon  as  it  comes  within  range.  Even  if  it  be  missed  it 
will  not  run  away,  evidently  considering  the  flash  and  the 
report  to  be  part  of  the  performance '  (Darwin). 

It  is  curiosity  that  leads  frequently  to  a  prying  inspection 
or  examination  not  only  of  man's  works  but  of  himself,  of 
the  one  as  strange  articles,  of  the  other  as  an  unfamiliar  or 
new  animal.  This  habit  in  the  Arctic  bear  is  often  useful  to 
sailors  in  enabling  them  to  save  their  lives.  In  their  flight, 
if  they  throw  down  successively  handkerchiefs  or  other 
articles,  especially  if  brightly  coloured,  the  pursuing  animal 
carefully  examines  them  one  by  one,  an  inspection  that  occu- 
pies time,  which,  while  lost  to  the  bear,  is  gained  by  the 
sailors  (Cassell).  But  examination  is  prompted  by  other 
considerations  than  mere  curiosity  and  a  desire  for  satisfying 
it.  A  much  more  common  reason  for  the  careful  inspection 
of  a  person,  other  animal,  or  thing  is  to  determine — 

1.  Whether  it  is  dangerous  or  harmless. 

2.  Whether  it  may  subserve  any  useful  purpose  to  the 
examiner. 

Many  birds  scrutinise  keenly  all  man's  operations  and 
their  results.  Other  animals  examine  new  objects  with  dis- 
trust and  precaution.  The  prairie  wolf  makes  a  very  deli- 
berate inspection  of  all  forms  of  snare,  trap,  or  bait. 

Examination  frequently  includes  or  involves  more  or  less 
systematic  and  protracted  search,  research,  or  exploration  for 
or  of — 

1.  Forage  fields. 

2.  Water  supply. 

3.  Lost  young. 

4.  Lost  or  stolen  articles  of  man's. 

5.  Their  masters'  persons. 

6.  Booty  or  spoil  of  all  kinds. 


254  SELF-EDUCATION:  THE  ACQUISITION  OF 

7.  Materials  of  construction. 

In  their  regular  search  for  water  supply  the  dog,  horse, 
mule,  ox,  goat,  and  other  animals  explore  new  or  unvisited 
localities  (Houzeau).  The  theftuous  monkey  ransacks  man's 
pockets  in  pocket-picking.  The  bereaved  bitch  or  cat  makes 
the  most  anxious  and  unwearied  search  for  her  lost  young, 
and  female  birds  for  their  abstracted  eggs.  Hounds  or 
other  sporting  dogs  seek  carefully  for  the  track  of  game — 
for  instance,  the  foxhound  for  that  of  the  elk  in  Ceylon 
(Baker) — such  a  search  including  the  fording  or  swimming 
of  lakes  and  rivers. 

Rat-catching  terriers  explore  houses  in  search  of  their 
prey.  Both  cats  and  dogs  sometimes  seeTc  for  their  masters 
at  the  houses  of  their  friends,  or  even  in  large  assemblies, 
such  as  balls  or  public  meetings  (Watson,  'Percy  Anec- 
dotes'). Both  cats  and  dogs,  too,  search  enquiringly  and 
anxiously  in  a  master's  or  an  enemy's  eye  or  features  for 
his  or  its  intention  towards  them.  Monkeys  make  the  closest 
examination  of  bark  and  leaves  in  their  search  for  insects, 
of  the  hair  and  skin  of  the  dog  in  looking  for  vermin  (Belt). 

Examination  sometimes  includes  also  researches  or  en- 
quiries —  reconnoitring  and  surveys  —  with  corresponding 
reports  by  commissioners,  pioneers,  delegates,  spies,  scouts, 
sentinels — in  war,  foraging,  marauding,  slave-capturing,  or 
colonisation.  Horses  and  cows  frequently  make  surveys  of 
fences,  in  order  to  the  detection  of  their  weak  points,  as  offer- 
ing a  means  of  escape  or  of  access  to  some  coveted  pasture. 
Macaulay,  for  instance,  mentions  an  old  mare  making  a  regular 
tour  of  inspection  of  such  a  kind  round  an  enclosure.  The 
avant-couriers  of  swallows  in  migrating  appear  to  make 
both  surveys  and  reports.  Certain  Californian  ants  recon- 
noitre as  to  the  presence  or  absence  of  danger  (Hague),  which 
is  also  done  by  a  great  variety  of  higher  animals,  including 
the  wild  horse  and  elephant  (Watson)  and  the  spider-monkey 
(Cassell). 

Much  of  the  knowledge  acquired  by  the  lower  animals  is 
the  result  of  direct  experimentation  by  themselves.  They  test 
or  try  in  various  ways — 

1.  The  mechanical  properties  of  bodies. 


KNOWLEDGE  BY  INVESTIGATION.  255 

2.  Their  dangerousness  or  power  of  inflicting  pain. 

3.  The  best  means  of  effecting  a  given  purpose. 

One  of  the  commonest  objects  in  their  experimental  in- 
vestigations is  to  ascertain  the  strength  of  material,  in  refe- 
rence especially  to  its  capability  to  support  given  body  weights 
or  mechanical  strains.  Thus  orangs,  before  climbing  trees, 
'  test  the  branches,  as  to  whether  they  will  bear,  by  shaking 
them'  (Biichner).  Cingalese  elephants  try  the  strength  of 
bridges  before  trusting  their  body  weight  on  them, '  using 
their  foot  and  trunk,  and  refusing  to  venture  upon  the  bridge 
if  vibration  is  at  all  perceptible'  (Baker,  Watson). 

Berkeley  tells  us  of  a  retriever  tiying  the  strength  of  ice, 
and  looking  for  a  convenient  and  safe  place  to  cross  a  frozen 
brook. 

Certain  animals,  again,  test  the  temperature  of  various 
fluids  or  solids.  Thus  Berkeley  reports  a  male  parent  bird 
trying  the  varying  heat  of  a  nest  of  short-mown  grass,  which 
became  warm  by  fermentation.  He  visits  it  when  full  of 
eggs  *  very  frequently,  and  tries  the  temperature  with  his 
foot.  If  too  hot,  he  decreases  the  grass  around  the  eggs  ;  if 
too  cold,  he  heaps  on  more  grass.'  Monkeys  sometimes  try 
the  heat  of  warm  water  by  the  cautious  and  gradual  intro- 
duction of  their  feet  or  fists — just  as  man  estimates  the 
temperature  of  his  bath  by  inserting  his  fingers  or  hand. 

Other  animals  test  the  quantity  of  fluid  in  a  given  vessel 
by  the  use  of  their  paws  or  feet.  The  cat,  for  instance, 
sometimes  gauges  or  measures  the  quantity  of  water,  milk, 
or  cream  in  a  jug — ascertains  the  lowness  or  highness  of 
its  level,  its  accessibility,  or  the  reverse — by  means  of  its  paw 
('  Animal  World ') ;  and  the  rat  probably  does  the  same  by 
the  use  of  its  tail. 

Experimental  investigation  usually  or  frequently  implies 
both  repetition  and  variation  of  effort,  frequency  of  attempts  to 
attain  a  given  end,  involving  diligence,  perseverance,  deter- 
mination, with  change  in  the  mode  or  means  employed,  neces- 
sitating ingenuity,  adaptiveness,  reflection,  comparison.  In- 
order  to  success  in  attaining  an  object,  or  accomplishing  a 
purpose,  repeated  trials  may  be  made  of  the  same  kind,  as  well 
as  of  different  kinds.  Thus  birds  that  break  shells  on  stones 
18 


256  SELF-EDUCATION. 

by  dropping  them  from  a  height  upon,  or  by  using  their  beaks 
to  hold  them  and  dashing  them  against,  some  hard  sub- 
stance, such  as  a  stone  or  a  rock,  may  simply  vary  the  height, 
the  hardness  of  the  stone,  or  the  force  of  the  blow,  in  their 
different  attempts. 

As  in  man,  investigation  of  all  kinds  in  other  animals 
requires  the  use  of  the  senses  and  judgment ;  the  applica- 
tion of  such  faculties  as  memory,  reflection,  comparison, 
inference.  But  it  by  no  means  follows  that  the  lower  ani- 
mals arrive  at  their  conclusions,  acquire  their  information, 
their  experimental  or  other  knowledge,  by  the  same  use  of 
the  same  senses  as  in  man. 

On  the  contrary,  we  know  that  certain  senses  are  used  by 
the  lower  animals  in  a  different  way  from  that  "in  which  they 
are  employed  by  man.  For  instance,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  dog  acquires  by  sniffing  or  smell  information  that 
man  usually  obtains  by  the  use  of  vision.  We  are  too  fre- 
quently at  a  loss  to  determine  what  senses  have  been  opera- 
tive in  the  acquisition  of  given  knowledge  by  so  familiar  an 
animal  even  as  the  dog — what  has  been  the  part  played  re- 
spectively by  each  of  several  senses,  perhaps.  Some  of  man's 
artistic  representations  of  fire — for  instance,  in  lobby  grates 
— are  sometimes  so  good  as  at  first  sight  to  deceive  a  dog. 

But  the  animal  submits  what  it  soon  comes  to  suspect  is 
an  imposture  to  investigation,  by  observation,  by  touching, 
by  sniffing  or  smell.  It  applies  tests,  and  makes  experi- 
ments with  one  sense  after  another,  or  with  all  combined, 
and  then  applies  reflection,  comparison,  judgment,  to  the 
determination  of  the  nature  of  the  deceptive  appearance. 
Its  suspicion  that  a  mere  imitation  stood  for  a  reality  was 
probably  produced  by  such  physical  facts  as  the  absence  of 
heat  and  of  motion  in  the  apparent  flame. 

The  horse,  too,  sniffs  or  smells,  as  well  as  looks  at,  un- 
familiar objects — brings  all  its  senses  and  intelligence  to 
bear  on  the  investigation  of  those  that  are,  therefore,  pre- 
sumably dangerous. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

EDUCATION   OP   ANIMALS   BY   MAW. 

THE  education  of  other  animals  by  man  is  either— 

1.  Direct  and  intentional,  for  some  specific  purpose  of  his 
own,  in  which  case  it  is  usually  thorough  and  systematic ;  or — 

2.  Indirect  and  unintentional,  the  result  simply  of  asso- 
ciation with  him,  of  the  influence  of  his  habitual  example 
and  behaviour. 

Direct  and  deliberate  training  by  man  may  be  for  good  or 
for  bad  purposes,  or  for  those  which  can  scarcely  be  designated 
either  the  one  or  the  other.  Its  object  is,  usually  at  least, 
his  own  selfish  ends,  either  of  profit  or  pleasure,  or  both. 
This  may  be  best  seen  in  a  consideration  of  some  of  the  chief 
results  of  man's  training,  which  include  the  following : — 

1.  The  feats  or  tricks  of  performing  or  learned  animals, 
among  which  are  dogs,  horses,  cats,  elephants,  canaries, 
parrots,  and  even  fleas  :  e.g. — 

a.  The  articulation  of  words  and  phrases — the  use 
of  speech — by  the  parrot  and  certain  other  birds, 
including  the  acquisition  of  human  language 
and  the  knowledge  of  more  than  one  of  man's 
languages. 

6.  A  certain  kind  of  orthography  or  spelling,  con- 
sisting of  the  arrangement  in  words  of  the 
letters  of  man's  alphabet,  including  the  correc- 
tion of  errors. 

c.  A  sort  of  writing,  involving  the  skilled  use  of  the 

paws. 

d.  Feats  of  jugglery. 

e.  Gambling,  or  playing  tricks  with  cards. 


258  EDUCATION   OF  ANIMALS  BY  MAN. 

/.   Playing  games  of  various  kinds  with  man. 

g.  Peats  in  arithmetic,  or  the  calculation  of  numbers. 

h.  Beading  the  clock,  involving  a  knowledge  of 
figures,  if  not  also  of  numbers  or  time. 

i.  Beading  or  understanding  figures  on  cards, 
patterns  on  carpets,  pictorial  illustrations  of 
persons,  other  animals,  and  things. 

j.  Peats  of  song  and  whistling,  including  the  per- 
formance of  operas  and  concerts,  involving  the 
taking  of  parts. 

~k.  The  performance  of  certain  kinds  of  instrumental 
music,  by  such  animals  even  as  swine  and  cats, 
elephants  and  bears,  the  two  latter  playing  the 
organ  (Pierquin,  Bisset) — including  the  keeping 
of  time  as  well  as  a  knowledge  of  tune. 

I.  Histrionic  or  dramatic  representations,  in  which, 
as  in  concerts  or  operas,  different  animals 
'play' appropriately  their  different  parts,  in- 
cluding the  simulation  of  human  character,  of 
military  exercises,  of  declamation. 

m.  Peats  of  agility  by  the  monkey,  and  even  by  the 
horse  and  bear — such  as  walking  or  tumbling, 
as  well  as  dancing  to  music,  on  the  tight  rope 
or  otherwise,  trundling  wheelbarrows  oil  the 
tight  rope,  firing  cannon  by  pulling  the  string 
of  a  trigger,  bell-ringing. 

n.  The  development  of  politeness  or  manners,  in- 
cluding salutation,  behaviour  at  table  and  in 
man's  society. 
2.  Services  to  man. 

a.  Acting  as  valets  or  servants,  including  the 
calling  of  servants  or  awaking  of  masters, 
opening  door  to  visitors,  handing  them  their 
hats,  and  showing  them  out. 

6.  Acting  as  messengers  or  porters,  including  es- 
pecially the  conveyance  of  printed  or  written 
intelligence  of  the  first  importance  by  homing 
pigeons  during  war,  the  delivery  of  newspa- 
pers, fetching  and  carrying  groceries,  butcher's 
meat,  and  bread. 


EDUCATION   OF  ANIMALS  BY  MAN.  259 

c.  The  guidance  of  the  Hind  or  helpless. 

d.  The  discovery  of  lost  travellers  and  property. 

e.  The  defence  of  persons  or  property. 

/.   The  saving  of  life  in  shipwreck  or  otherwise. 

g.  The  capture  and  home-bringing  of  runaway  or 
stray  animals. 

h.  The  guidance  and  guardianship,  including  the 
nursing,  of  children ;  the  management  of  teams 
of  horses  and  flocks  of  sheep. 

i.  Hunting  down  certain  animals  so  as  not  to  injure 
their  fur. 

j.  The  bearing,  draught,  and  carriage  of  burdens. 

k.  Begging  for  behoof  of  their  masters,  and  so  sup- 
porting them. 

I.  Capturing  or  collecting  food  for  man,  as  in  birds  or 
dogs  fishing  for  their  human  masters,  including, 
for  instance,  the  gathering  of  cocoa-nuts  by 
monkeys  as  hired  labourers,  described  as 
'  monkey  coolies,'  in  Ceylon. 

m.  The  performance  of  various  duties,  mostly  of 
a  mechanical  nature,  some  of  them,  however, 
requiring  a  considerable  amount  of  mental 
exertion,  such  as — 

1.  Drawing  carriages  or  guns. 

2.  Piling  timber. 

3.  Fitting  drain  or  other  pipes. 

4.  Turning  kitchen  spits. 

5.  Working  the  bellows. 

6.  Tending  engine  or  other  fires. 

7.  Playing  the  barrel  organ. 

n.  The  judicial  punishment  of  man  or  other  animals, 
the  execution  of  man's  sentences  on  fellow-man, 
as  by  the  elephant  in  India  or  the  blood  hound 
in  Cuba. 

o.  Use  in  war,  in  aiding  or  defending  man — for  in- 
stance, in  the  intimidation  of  his  enemies — 
including  the  display  of  coolness  in  battle. 

p.  Various  arts  of  deception,  such  as  those  involved 
in  smuggling  and  brigandage. 


260  EDUCATION   OF  ANIMALS  BY  MAN. 

q.  Various  crimes,  such  as — 

1.  Theft  in  all  its  degrees,  up  to  highway 

robbery. 

2.  The  murder  or  mutilation  of  man  or 

other  animals,  for  the  purposes  of 
revenge  or  for  other  nefarious  pur- 
poses. 

3.  Services  to  themselves. 

a.  The  use  of  money,  including  buying  or  purchasing 

by  the  dog. 

b.  Begging  for  their  own  behoof. 

4.  Services  equally  to  themselves  and  to  man  include,  for 
instance,  the  restraint  imposed  upon  their  natural  appetites, 
the  wonderful  self-control  of  which  they  become  capable. 

This  self-restraint,  or  self-denial,  while  it  is  one  of  man's 
greatest  educational  triumphs,  is  alone  sufficient  to  repay 
him  for  all  his  trouble,  foreshadowing,  as  it  does,  the  yet 
hidden  possibilities  of  what  he  may  achieve  from  the  do- 
mestication and  moral  education  of  the  anthropoid  apes.  Thus 
the  truffle-hunting  dog,  a  small  dog  bred  from  the  French 
poodle,  though  very  fond  of  truffles,  never  eats  them,  '  being 
trained  not  to  do  so.'  The  shepherd's  collie  is  similarly 
taught  not  to  touch  milk,  while  in  other  dogs  the  restriction 
refers  to  the  even  greater  temptation  of  uncooked  flesh  of 
various  kinds. 

The  useful  accomplishments  of  the  lower  animals,  the 
result  of  man's  training,  may  be  studied  as  illustrative,  on 
the  one  hand,  of  what  may  be  achieved  by  a  single  human 
teacher,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  of  what  may  be  exhibited 
by  a  single  animal  species. 

An  idea  of  what  one  man  can  do  in  developing  the  mental 
and  bodily  powers  of  animals  may  be  gained  from  a  study  of 
the  animal  feats  which  resulted  from  the  labours  of  Bisset, 
the  animal  trainer  or  teacher  of  Perth.  He  had  animals  of 
the  most  diverse  genera  and  species  thoroughly  under  com- 
mand ;  in  his  hands  they  became  pliant,  obedient,  good-na- 
tured. He  developed  in  them  good  manners ;  taught  them  to 
offer  obeisance  or  greeting  to  their  audience  or  spectators 
for  he  exhibited  his  performing  animals  before  great  assem-, 


EDUCATION  OF  ANIMALS  BY  MAN.         261 

blages  of  people  in  London  and  other  large  cities)  ;  substi- 
tuted tractability  for  obstinacy  in  such  an  unpromising 
animal  as  the  pig;  caused  different  individuals,  genera,  or 
species  to  act  in  concert  (for  instance,  in  part-singing  or 
operas) ;  made  them  useful  in  going  messages  or  fetching  and 
carrying  according  to  orders. 

Among  the  feats  he  taught — the  very  varied  accomplish- 
ments his  pupils  acquired — were  writing,  arithmetic,  spelling 
names,  telling  hours  on  the  clock,  playing  tunes  on  the  dul- 
cimer, turning  the  barrel  organ  or  beating  the  drum, 
dancing,  riding  and  tumbling  on  horses'  backs,  tumbling  and 
dancing  on  the  tight  rope,  the  use  of  the  paw  in  drinking 
healths  or  holding  candles. 

On  the  other  hand,  among  the  tricks  exhibited  by  learned 
or  performing  elephants  alone  :  are — 

1.  Emptying  soda-water  bottles. 

2.  Folding  their  own  saddle-cloths  (Watson). 

3.  Public,  military,  or  other  salutes  (Pierquin). 

4.  Speaking  or  talking  of  some  kind. 

5.  Piping  or  whistling,  or  other  forms  of  music,  vocal  or 
instrumental. 

6.  Gymnastics. 

7.  Theatrical  or  dramatic  representations. 

8.  Mechanical  or  engineering  skill. 

9.  Bell- ringing. 

10.  Organ-playing. 

11.  Obeying  man's  word  of  command  or  order. 

12.  Rope-dancing. 

13.  Dining  at  man's  table  and  behaving  with  decorum, 
though  necessarily  after  a  clumsy  fashion  in  contrast  with 
that  exhibited  by  certain  anthropoid  apes. 

The  orang  can  be  trained  to  sit  at  table  and  conduct  itself 
with  all  due  decorum  or  propriety;  to  become  a  servant, 
waiting  at  table  and  performing  other  domestic  services 
(Watson,  Cassell) — all  in  a  notably  human  fashion.  The 
chimpanzee  shows  in  various  ways  a  similar  humanlike  or  civi- 
lised behaviour.  For  instance,  he  sometimes  takes  his  food 
like  a  man,  making  use  both  of  man's  foods  and  beverages,  as 
man  uses  them.  He  helps  himself  to  wine ;  drinks  hot  tea, 


262  EDUCATION  OF  ANIMALS  BY  MAN. 

sugaring  it,  pouring  it  into  a  saucer,  and  waiting  till  it  cools. 
He  has  been  trained  also  to  the  domestic  service  of  man,  as 
he  has  been  to  man's  companionship.  He  has  been  taught 
to  feed  and  attend  a  baker's  oven-fire  on  board  ship,  to 
act  as  galley  fireman,  regulating  the  temperature  (Cassell, 
Houzeau). 

A  well-known  female  chimpanzee — now  dead — of  the 
Zoological  Gardens  of  London,  f  eats  her  egg  with  a  spoon, 
takes  her  grog  daily,  and  it  is  said  that,  when  on  board  ship, 
she  mixed  the  latter  herself.  She  will  lock  and  unlock  a 
door  or  drawer;  will  thread  any  needle.  She  cannot  be 
taken  in  [deceived]  with  the  same  thing  twice/  She  is 
described  as  '  shaking  hands  in  a  very  cordial  manner  with 
some  children.  ...  In  taking  her  meals  on  the  passage 
home  she  used  knife,  fork,  spoon,  and  drinking-cup  with  the 
same  ease  as  a  human  being ;  and,  with  whatever  food  she 
was  supplied,  she  preferred  using  a  fork  or  a  spoon  to  convey 
it  to  her  mouth  to  holding  it  in  her  hands.' 

The  chacma  baboon  has  been  taught  to  blow  bellows  and 
to  drive  teams  of  waggon-horses  (Baird).  Other  baboons 
have  acted  as  torch-bearers  (Cassell),  and  were  employed  in 
domestic  service  and  as  workmen  or  artisans  by  the  ancient 
Egyptians.  Large  apes  are  now  regularly  employed  in  the 
Straits  Settlements  to  pull  cocoa-nuts,  being  l  imported  from 
Acheen  in  batches  like  coolies,  and  are  marched  round  the 
plantations  by  their  owners,  who  let  them  out  on  hire.' 
They  are  '  said  to  select  suitable  fruit  with  great  discrimina- 
tion, and  to  twist  the  nut  round  and  round  until  it  falls.'  * 

The  commoner  results  of  man's  education  of  other  animals 
include  the  development  of  good  behaviour,  which  involves 
such  qualities  as — 

a.  Quietude.  g.  Sympathy. 

b.  Obedience.  h.  Eespect. 

c.  Self-control.  i.  Coolness  or  calmness. 

d.  Docility.  j.  Industry. 

e.  Honesty.  If.  Regularity. 
/.  Self-denial. 

Among   the   many  practical   advantages,    or   results,  of 
1  '  Scotsman,'  February  11,  1875. 


EDUCATION  OF  ANIMALS  BY  MAN.  263 

man's  education  of  the  domestic  animals  is  this,  that  such 
animals  as  the  elephant,  horse,  ass,  mule,  dog,  orang,  and 
chimpanzee,  for  instance,  can  often  work  without  a  master's 
supervision,  direction,  or  even  presence — that  is,  when  the}7 
have  been  thoroughly  instructed  in  the  duties  required  of 
them.  In  other  words,  a  certain  spontaneity  of  action  is 
acquired,  the  result  partly  of  habit,  partly  of  willingness, 
partly  of  pleasure  taken  in  the  work  itself.  They  come  to 
do  things  of  their  own  accord,  habitually,  almost  automatic- 
ally, readily,  which  at  first  were  done  only  by  command,  in 
a  master's  presence,  and  as  the  result  of  gradual,  systematic, 
long-continued,  laborious  training. 

This,  in  fact,  is  one  of  the  many  triumphs  of  the  education 
of  the  lower  animals  by  man,  one  of  the  many  strong  and 
utilitarian  arguments  in  favour  of  its  being  thorough.  His 
labour  is  repaid  in  the  assistance  he  derives — in  the  co-ope- 
ration or  service  of  the  animals  on  whom  he  so  well  bestows 
his  efforts.  The  elephant,  if  only  it  be  shown  its  work,  and 
understands  its  nature  and  its  master's  object,  may  be 
trusted  to  do  it  without  supervision  and  with  wonderful 
skill,  energy,  and  perseverance  (Houzeau).  The  dog  goes 
messages  wholly  without  surveillance.  'Performing'  dogs 
may  be  daily  seen  in  the  streets  of  London  going  through 
their  performances  by  themselves,  and  not  even  for  the 
benefit  of  themselves.  For  Grenville  Murray  mentions  one 
whose  decrepit,  blind  beggar-master  was  confined  to  bed, 
while  his  dog's  performances  were  the  sole  means  of  his 
obtaining  an  income  and  thereby  life-support. 

It  is  creditable  to  human  sympathy  to  be  able  to  say  that, 
so  far  as  the  collection  of  coin  was  concerned,  the  sagacious 
animal's  tricks  were  more  successful  when  performed  in  the 
absence  of  all  human  supervision  or  accompaniment  than 
had  the  poor  beggar  himself  been  present.  Houzeau  speaks 
of  a  French  butcher's  dog  that  conducted  both  cattle  and 
sheep  alone,  unaided,  unseen  by  its  master. 

Animals  that  are  in  the  habit  of  doing  certain  things 
under  certain  circumstances — have  been  trained  to  do  so  by 
man,  but  under  his  auspices — sometimes  act  without  orders 
on  their  own  responsibility,  in  his  absence,  taking  for  granted 


264  EDUCATION   OF  ANIMALS  BY  MAN. 

or  assuming  what  his  wishes  or  intentions  would  or  might 
have  been  ;  or  perhaps  simply  through  force  of  habit,  and  as 
the  effect  of  discipline — when  the  same  circumstances  arise 
acting  in  the  same  way. 

Habit  in  relation  to  education  is  a  subject  of  much  in- 
terest— as  it  is  illustrated,  for  instance,  by  the  life-lasting 
results  of  systematic  and  judicious  training  in  the  form  of 
military  or  other  discipline.  Such  is  its  effect  in  fighting 
elephants  in  India — purposely  rendered  ferocious — that  they 
obey  their  mahouts  '  even  in  the  utmost  height  of  their  fury.' J 
A  runaway  tame  elephant  that  was  captured  among  a  herd  of 
wild  ones  eighteen  months  after  its  escape,  being  ordered  to 
lay  down,  *  immediately  obeyed  the  familiar  word  of  com- 
mand and  became  perfectly  tractable.' 

Another  that  had  been  at  large  for  fourteen  years,  '  on 
being  recaptured,  remembered  her  former  driver,  and  in- 
stantly lay  down  at  his  order'  (Macaulay).  But  the  result 
is  even  more  familiar  and  equally  well-marked  in  the  old 
cavalry  charger  when  it  hears  again,  after  a  long  absence 
from  the  army,  the  trumpet  call.  The  effect  of  its  early 
training  is  seen  even  in  panics  or  stampedes. 

The  results  of  man's  training,  whether  for  good  or  evil, 
are  most  frequently  and  readily  illustrated  in  the  dog,  cat, 
horse,  elephant,  monkey,  pig,  bear;  and  in  various  birds, 
such  as  the  parrot,  parroquet,  and  cockatoo,  and  the  song 
birds ;  and  even  in  fleas.  They  may  be  seen  or  studied  almost 
at  any  time  in  the  menageries,  hippodromes,  or  circuses  of 
all  kinds  that  perambulate  the  country,  or  that  are  stationary 
in  large  cities,  such  as  London,  Edinburgh,  or  Dublin.  The 
wonderful  feats  of  trained  animals — of  bands  of  dogs,  for 
instance — may  occasionally  be  seen  on  a  smaller  scale,  but 
not  less  instructive  form,  in  the  street  stages  of  itinerant 
musicians,  especially  on  the  Continent.  The  last  exhibition 
I  have  myself  seen  of  this  kind  was  on  a  public  promenade 
in  Leipsic. 

Man's  education  of  other  animals  is  frequently  by  pay- 
ment for  results — a  principle  that  nowadays  regulates  so 
much  of  our  own  national  education. 

1  '  Scotsman,'  November  22,  1875. 


EDUCATION  OF  ANIMALS  BY  MAN.  265 

Man's  methods  or  means  of  tuition  vary  greatly  in  dif- 
ferent men  and  in  different  animals.     They  include — 

1.  Various  systems  or  forms  of  reward  and  punishment, 
especially  the  giving  or  withholding  of  necessary  or  coveted 
articles  of  food. 

2.  Various  combinations  of  kindness  and.  firmness,  or  kind- 
ness alone,  including  the  development  of  love  and  confidence. 

3.  Various  forms  of  harshness  or  cruelty,  including  the 
development  of  fear. 

4.  Acting  on  their — 

a.  Love  of  approbation. 

b.  Expectancy. 

c.  Desires  or  appetites. 

5.  The  force  of  discipline,  routine,  habit — all  long-con- 
tinued. 

6.  A  due  recognition  of  each  animal's  individuality. 

7.  Due  allowance  has  to  be  made  also  for  age,  sex,  health, 
and  other  circumstances  that  may  give  peculiarity  to  each 


8.  The  requirements  of  the  teacher  should  include — 

a.  Great  patience  and  perseverance. 

b.  Perfect  command  of  temper. 

c.  Much  kindliness  to  and  sympathy  with  his  pupils. 
There  are  thus  certain  mental  qualities,  some  of  them 

approaching  the  character  of  foibles,  in  the  pupil  that  man 
has  to  take  a  legitimate  or  proper  advantage  of.  Thus  the 
love  of  approbation  and  of  spectators  may  be  regarded  as 
amounting  to  vanity  or  self-conceit.  There  is  a  necessity 
for  sedulously  cultivating  some  one  or  more  of  these  qualities, 
according  to  the  special  object  in  view — accomplishment  to 
be  acquired. 

The  effects  of  mere  association  with  man  include  some- 
times remarkable  changes  in  an  animal's  character.  Such 
association,  for  instance — 

1.  May  either  improve  or  deteriorate  the  character  of 
such  an  animal  as  the  dog,  which  is  at  once  highly  intelli- 
gent, observant,  and  impressionable ;  or — 

2.  It  may  render  the   character  of  the  lower  animal, 
notably  of  the  dog,  a  mere  reflex  of  that  of  his  master. 


266          EDUCATION  OF  ANIMALS  BY  MAN. 

In  both  cases  it  may  be  said  that  the  character  of  the 
master  determines  that  of  his  animal  retainer — a  circumstance 
that  attaches  to  the  former,  as  has  been  shown  in  other 
chapters,  a  high  measure  of  responsibility  for  the  behaviour 
of  subject  animals. 

The  effect  of  man's  companionship  in  the  production  of 
humanlike  behaviour  is  best  illustrated  perhaps  in  the  an- 
thropoid apes,  in  whom  imitation  is  powerful,  and  who  in 
structure  and  habit  of  body  so  closely  resemble  man.  *  They 
become  accustomed  to  wear  clothes,  drink  out  of  glasses, 
use  a  spoon  and  a  fork,  uncork  bottles,  clean  boots,  and 
brush  clothes,  and  are  even  said  to  be  employed  at  the 
Cape  in  a  number  of  useful  labours  of  the  house  and  field. 
.  .  .  On  shipboard  they  help  to  reef  and  furl  the  sails. 
They  make  themselves  a  bed  with  a  raised  pillow,  show  an 
inclination  for  ladies,  light  a  fire  and  cook  food,  dust  furni- 
ture, clean  the  floor,  try  to  open  locks.  .  .  .  Buffon's  cele- 
brated chimpanzee  extended  his  hand  to  visitors,  went  arm- 
in-arm  with  them,  ate  at  table,  sitting  and  with  a  napkin, 
used  fork  and  spoon,  wiped  his  mouth,  poured  out  a  glass, 
fetched  coffee,  put  sugar  in  it.  ...  Bastian  saw  in  an  Eng- 
lish man-of-war  an  ape  sitting  among  the  sailors,  sewing 
as  zealously  as  they  '  (Buchner). 

Man's  mere  companionship  is  indeed  an  education  in  itself, 
whether  for  good  or  for  evil.  'Like  master,  like  dog*  is 
quite  as  true  as  the  adage  '  Like  master,  like  man.'  His  dog 
as  well  as  his  human  retainer  insensibly  acquires  something 
of  his  own  character ;  such  is  the  force  of  example  and  imi- 
tation— of  what  has  been  called  moral  contagion  or  sympathy. 
The  resemblance  may  be  simply  ludicrous;  the  dog,  and 
still  more  the  monkey,  may  become  a  mere  unintentional 
caricature  of  its  master,  as  when  it  acquires  his  attitudes, 
gestures,  or  looks  of  hauteur.  But  the  resemblance  is  quite 
as  likely  to  be  serious  in  every  respect. 

Thus  the  bull-dog,  trained  for  mere  fighting  purposes  in 
such  a  moral  atmosphere  as  that  of  Hanley,  is  '  a  morose 
and  suspicious  animal ;  but  he  has  been  made  so  by  bad 
masters  and  his  parents  before  him.  He  is  a  diseased,  morbid 
specimen  of  the  race'  (Wood).  '  He  is  ....  an  unsafe 


EDUCATION  OF  ANIMALS  BY  MAN.         267 

companion  even  for  his  master,  and  is  just  as  likely  to 
attack  his  master  as  a  stranger  if  his  blood  be  up '  ('  Animal 
World').  This  is  only  one,  however,  of  many  illustrations 
that  might  be  given  of  man's  evil  training  recoiling  upon 
himself,  of  merited  retribution,  of  the  punishments  of 
Nemesis. 

'The  natural  connection  between  democracy  and  irre- 
verence it  was  that  led  Plato  to  make  the  observation  that 
even  the  dogs  of  Athens  had  a  certain  look  of  impertinence 
about  them,  which  .was  not  observed  in  Sparta'  (Blackie). 
Various  writers  have  pointed  out  that,  according  to  the  cha- 
racter of  its  master  and  his  household,  a  dog  shows  humility 
or  self-depreciation  on  the  one  hand,  arrogance  or  impudent 
self-assertion  on  the  other. 

There  may  be  said  to  be  two  great  antagonistic  courses  of 
educational  treatment  pursued  by  man — viz.  the  rule  or 
reign  of — 

1.  Fear  and 

2.  Love  respectively. 

They  lead  frequently  to  the  same  apparent  result — obedience 
in  servitude.  But  the  nature  of  the  obedience  and  the 
motive  of  the  service  rendered  are  very  different,  usually  and 
necessarily,  in  the  two  cases.  In  the  first  the  result  of  severe 
discipline  includes  a  constant  dread  of  punishment,  a  com- 
pulsory and  probably  temporary  tranquillity  or  docility, 
always  marked,  or  liable  to  be  marked,  by  timidity  and 
nervousness,  and  in  the  horse  by  a  tendency  to  shy  and  run 
off.  In  the  second  case  there  is  a  calm,  steady  confidence  in, 
if  not  an  attachment  to,  its  master  or  rider,  if  the  animal  be 
a  horse  (Pierquin). 

The  Ettrick  shepherd,  Walsh,  and  other  writers  show, 
in  regard  to  the  shepherd's  dog,  how  powerful  an  agency 
is  man's  kindly  companionship  in  the  development  and  cul- 
tivation of  the  animal's  sagacity;  how  the  shrewdness  of 
the  master  reacts  insensibly,  but  favourably,  on  the  intelli- 
gence of  his  collie. 

The  pariah  or  outcast  dogs  of  Indian  cities,  too,  reflect 
the  mildness  and  kindness  of  their  masters,  the  Hindoos, 
and  form  a  remarkable  contrast  to  the  same  class  of  dogs 


268  EDUCATION  OF  ANIMALS  BY  MAN. 

among  the  Turks  (Low).  The  proverbial  sagacity  of  the 
Arabian  steed,  its  humanlike  qualities  of  head  and  heart, 
arise  from  its  intimate  association  with  and  education  by 
man  (Farley) ;  and  the  same  may  be  said  in  a  minor  degree 
of  the  Irish  pig. 

Woman's  companionship  exercises  frequently  quite  as 
marked  an  influence  as  man's,  both  for  good  and  evil,  but 
unfortunately  rather  for  evil  than  good.  The  constant  asso- 
ciation of  pet  animals — e.g.  lap-dogs — with  ladies  in  their 
boudoirs  and  drawing-rooms  no  doubt  begets  in  some  cases 
a  certain  politeness,  manners  that  may  be  called  refined  or 
aristocratic;  but  these  manners  are  apt  to  include  an  ob- 
jectionable hauteur  or  superciliousness,  while  there  can  be 
no  question  as  to  the  common  development  of  selfishness  and 
jealousy.  In  woman's  case,  however,  such  results  may  be 
due  less  to  imitation  of  a  mistress's  character  than  to  her 
injudicious  petting  and  pampering. 

Among  the  advantages  of  association  with  man  is  the 
development  of  powers  that  would  or  might  otherwise  re- 
main latent  (Houzeau).  An  animal's  whole  moral  nature 
may  not  only  be  improved,  but  almost  created.  The  quality 
of  the  general  intelligence  may  be  so  much  improved  also  as 
to  appear  different  in  kind  from  and  inferior  to  the  special 
skill  to  be  found  in  other  individuals  of  the  same  species. 
This  is  well  brought  out  in  the  comparison  instituted  by 
Hogg,  the  Ettrick  shepherd,  between  the  home-bred  collie — 
the  dog  that  is  left  at  home  as  a  protector  and  a  com- 
panion for  the  shepherd's  wife,  children,  and  homestead — 
and  its  brother  that  is  taken  or  sent  daily  to  the  hills,  that 
is  specially  trained  to  manage  sheep.  He  tells  us  that  the 
home-bred  animals  '  are  far  more  acute  at  taking  up  what  is 
said  in  a  family ' — that  is,  they  understand  more  readily  and 
fully  the  import  of  man's  conversation.  But  the  evils  or 
defects  that  sometimes  at  least  attend  or  characterise  special 
training  are  of  a  more  practical  and  serious  kind. 

Thus  Hogg  says  of  one  of  his  collies,  specially  trained 
to  accompany  him  to  the  hills  and  to  manage  sheep,  'if 
coming  hungry  from  the  hills  and  getting  into  a  milk-house, 
[he]  would  most  likely  think  of  nothing  else  than  filling  his 


EDUCATION   OF  ANIMALS  BY  MAN.  269 

belly  with  the  cream ; '  while  another  individual,  a  member  of 
the  same  litter  or  family  perhaps,  that  remains  at  home  as  the 
playfellow  of  the  shepherd's  children  and  the  guardian  of  his 
other  household  gods,  'is  bred  at  home  to  far  higher  principles 
of  honour.  I  have  known  such  [a  dog]  lay  night  and  day 
among  from  ten  to  twenty  pails  full  of  milk,  and  never  once 
break  the  cream  of  one  of  them  with  the  tip  of  his  tongue  ; 
nor  would  he  suffer  cat,  rat,  or  any  other  creature  to  touch 
it.' 

On  the  other  hand,  among  the  disadvantages  of  associa- 
tion with  man  are  the  savagery,  ferocity,  stupidity,  and 
want  of  affection  that  characterise,  for  instance,  the  bull- 
dog, none  of  which  qualities  are  natural  to  the  animal, 
though  they  are  the  natural  fruits  of  its  evil  up-bringing 
by  man  (Walsh). 

The  effects  of  the  up-bringing  of  young  dogs  or  other 
animals  with  children  are  frequently  very  remarkable  ('Ani- 
mal World').  Thus  bear  whelps  brought  up  in  the  same 
nursery  with  children,  in  intimate  companionship,  become 
even  amiable.  Bad  humour  is  rare ;  they  learn  to  behave 
themselves  even  at  table,  as  well  at  least  as  their  child 
companions  do  (Cassell). 

Domestication  is  virtually  a  form  and  process  of  education, 
in  which  man's  object  is  to  render  certain  animals  his  slaves 
or  servants,  companions  or  pets,  his  beasts  of  draught  or 
burden,  his  sources  of  food  supply  or  his  means  of  amuse- 
ment. He  cultivates  alike  their  physical  and  mental  nature 
in  the  directions  that  are  to  be  useful  to  himself.  His 
system  of  training,  where  he  has  a  system,  is  determined 
solely  by  considerations  of  direct  and  obvious  utilitarianism. 
He  makes  no  special  effort  to  develope  either  their  moral 
nature  or  intellectual  faculties  for  their  own  sakes,  in  order 
to  greater  moral  excellence  or  a  higher  kind  of  knowledge. 

And  yet  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  increased  economic 
value,  as  companions,  playthings,  or  servants  at  least,  of 
animals  highly  educated,  morally  and  intellectually.  Man's 
truest  economy  or  policy,  his  highest  privilege  and  most 
obvious  duty,  is,  where  he  makes  any  use  of  subject  animals 
(unless  for  the  mere  purposes  of  food),  to  educate  thoroughly, 


270          EDUCATION  OF  ANIMALS  BY  MAN. 

to  the  fullest  practicable  extent,  all  their  faculties  or  powers, 
moral,  intellectual,  and  physical. 

Domestication  in  the  case  of  the  Quadrumana  involves  a 
high  degree  of  what  may  be  quite  properly  called  civilisation, 
including  the  acquisition  of  domestic  habits — for  instance, 
as  to  behaviour  at  table,  bed-going,  visiting,  and  equitation. 
This  has  already  and  specially  been  pointed  out  in  reference 
to  the  orang  and  chimpanzee,  chacma  baboon,  and  various 


Domestication  involves  a  certain  kind  or  degree  of 
mutual  understanding,  attachment,  confidence,  sympathy, 
and  sociability,  a  desire  to  please  as  well  as  a  readiness  to 
be  pleased. 

In  domestication  various  noteworthy  physiological  trans- 
formations take  place,  including  the  loss  of  certain  natural 
aptitudes  or  habits  and  the  acquisition  of  new  ones  (Elam). 
A  marked  change  of  disposition  usually  occurs  (Spencer). 

But  these  changes  in  the  temper  or  intelligence  or  mode 
of  life  are  not  always  for  the  better.  Nor  are  they  all  to  be 
attributed  to  education,  whether  indirectly  or  directly.  They 
are  due  partly  to  alterations  in  food,  drink,  temperature, 
humidity,  altitude,  climate,  shelter,  and  occupation;  they 
include  the  results  of  an  unnatural  mode  of  life,  with  its 
involved  deprivation  of  exercise,  freedom,  and  gratification 
of  the  sexual  or  other  instincts,  as  pointed  out  in  the 
chapter  on  the  '  Mixed  Causes  of  Mental  Derangement.' 

The  practice  of  domestication  of  other  animals,  other 
genera  and  species,  is  not  confined  to  man.  There  are 
certain  other  animals  that  resort  to  the  practice,  with  the 
same  kind  of  objects  in  view — ministration  to  their  own 
physical  wants  or  comforts — for  the  sake  of  their  service  or 
produce.  Thus  certain  ants  keep  certain  Aphides,  just  as 
man  keeps  milch  cows,  the  Aphides  being  trained  to  yield 
their  honeydew  in  the  same  way  as  the  cow  is  trained  to 
give  up  its  milk. 

There  are  certain  other  ants  that  capture  and  tram  other 
species  as  their  slaves  or  servants,  to  do  their  work  and  wait 
upon  them  ;  and  there  is  a  certain  kind  of  domestication — 
there  is  at  least  the  subjection  of  one  animal  and  its  will  to 


EDUCATION   OF  ANIMALS  BY  MAN.  271 

the  superior  power,  intelligence,  and  will  of  another,  the 
subservience  of  a  weaker  to  a  stronger  animal — in  the  case 
of  apes  that  lay  hold  of  dogs  and  use  them  as  man  does  the 
horse — ride  upon  them  or  otherwise  employ  them  as  beasts 
of  burden. 

Domestication  and  taming  may  be  synonymous;  but 
they  are  not  necessarily  so,  for  it  cannot  be  said  that  all 
animals  that  are  tamed  by  man  are  domesticated.  Domes- 
tication implies  perfect  resignation  to  man's  power  and 
sovereignty,  as  well  as  free  and  full  companionship  or  fel- 
lowship. All  this  exists  in  the  case  of  the  dog,  cat,  horse, 
elephant,  ox,  pig,  and  our  common  fowls  and  song  birds. 
But  it  cannot  be  said  to  occur  in  the  case  of  the  majority 
at  least  of  menagerie  animals — of  those  exhibited  in  our 
Zoological  Gardens. 

In  the  itinerant  exhibitions  known  as  *  happy  families ' 
even  the  tameness  is  more  superficial  than  real;  the  ap- 
parent harmony  is  liable  to  be  disturbed — for  instance,  by 
the  pangs  of  hunger  or  by  fright.  Nevertheless  they  are 
wonderful  and  suggestive  illustrations  of  man's  power  of  so 
training  the  most  unpromising  animal  pupils  as  to  lead  to 
the  control,  unless  under  exceptional  circumstances,  of  their 
strong  natural  instincts,  appetites,  or  passions.  It  is  as- 
tonishing what  man  can  achieve  in  the  taming  of  animals 
by  the  practical  application  of  such  qualities  as  patience, 
perseverance,  sympathy,  kindness,  mercy,  if  only  the  ani- 
mals are  taken  in  hand  at  a  very  early  stage  of  their 
growth. 

Frederick  Cuvier  mentions  a  tame  wolf  that,  thus  trained 
by  man  from  the  youngest  stage  upwards,  became  *  as  tract- 
able as  a  dog.' 

Sir  John  Lubbock  contrived  to  tame  the  wasp.  The 
reputedly  intractable  otter  has  been  tamed  and  taught  to 
fish  for  man's  benefit  instead  of  its  own  (Baird).  The 
taming  of  a  brace  of  butterflies,  and  teaching  them  to  come 
at  call,  is  mentioned  by  Wood.  Many  apparently  dangerous 
wild  animals  have  become  by  training  substitutes  for  the 
dog  or  cat  as  house  pets  or  for  the  horse  as  beasts  of  burden 
— e.g\  the  Cape  hysena,  Madagascar  lemur,  American  skunk, 
19 


272          EDUCATION  OF  ANIMALS  BY  MAN. 

Egyptian  ichneumon  (Houzeau),  buffalo,  tiger,  bear  cubs, 
vulture,  and  various  snakes.  In  short,  it  may  be  said  that 
all  kinds  of  wild  animals  can  be  subjected  successfully  to 
the  process  of  training,  so  as  to  become  man's  playthings, 
companions,  or  servants — a  circumstance  that  very  properly 
forms  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  and  commendable  of 
man's  triumphs  in  the  education  of  the  lower  animals. 

The  difference,  however,  between  mere  taming  and  do- 
mestication probably  depends,  frequently  at  least,  on  the 
different  methods  of  education  employed  by  man.  Where 
fear  or  terrorism  has  been  used  instead  of  kindness  or  love, 
the  resultant  obedience  or  subjection  is  apt  to  be  unreal, 
insecure,  insincere,  and  shortlived. 

The  tameness  of  captive  animals  is,  or  may  be,  more 
apparent  than  real.  It  is  at  least  not  to  be  trusted  in  the 
case,  for  instance,  of  the  large,  fierce,  predatory  Carnivora, 
in  proof  whereof  the  accidents  to  man  that  every  now  and 
then  happen  from  menagerie  animals  may  be  cited. 

It  has  to  be  observed  also  that  the  term  tameness  is  fre- 
quently misapplied,  used  improperly,  for  that  fearlessness  of 
man  which  arises  from  unfamiliarity  with  him  as  an  enemy. 
It  is  in  reality  simply  an  absence  of  the  acquired  fear  of  man, 
because  as  yet  the  confiding  animal  has  had  no  experience 
of  his  treachery  and  is  aware  of  no  reason  for  getting  out  of 
his  way. 

As  in  other  forms  of  education,  there  must  be  in  taming 
a  due  combination  of  the  suaviter  in  modo  with  thefortiter  in 
re,  the  one  or  the  other  predominating  in  individual  cases. 
Thus  lion-taming  is  brought  about  by  a  judicious  combina- 
tion of  kindness,  firmness,  and  severity  (Buckland). 

Much  depends  also  on  the  capacity  or  qualifications  of 
the  teacher  or  trainer.  It  has  been  noticed  by  travellers 
that  there  is  a  singular  difference  in  the  capacities  of  civi- 
lised and  savage  man  to  tame  wild  animals,  the  savage 
possessing  the  great  advantage  of  a  superior  knowledge  of 
the  habits  and  dispositions  of  his  animal  pupils,  as  well  as  a 
keener  sympathy  with  their  feelings  and  requirements. 

The  economic  value  to  man  of  animal  education  appears 
to  be  little,  if  at  all,  considered — the  usefulness  to  him  of 


EDUCATION   OF  ANIMALS  BY  MAN.  273 

educated  compared  with  uneducated  animals — and  yet  this 
can  be  readily  shown  by  the  uselessness  of  certain  untrained 
or  imperfectly  trained  individuals,  and  the  usefulness  of 
certain  others,  highly  trained  or  properly  educated,  of  the 
same  species.  Thus  we  are  told  of  the  uselessness  of  the. 
Australian  cattle  dog  from  imperfect  training  (Baden  Powell), 
while  the  converse — the  high  value  or  usefulness  of  the 
trained  sheep  dog  at  home — is  too  well  known  to  require 
any  sort  of  proof  here.  The  Scotch  shepherd  not  only  saves 
himself  endless  trouble,  but  his  master  much  money,  by 
training  his  dog  to  the  gentle  yet  firm — in  other  words, 
judicious  and  skilful — management  of  his  charges,  the  sheep. 


CHAPTER  X. 

EDUCATION  OP  ANIMALS  BY  EACH  OTHER. 

IT  is  one  of  the  many  delusions  under  which  man  labours  in 
regard  to  the  mental  characteristics  of  other  animals  that 
the  lower  animals  are  born  with  all  their  faculties  perfect — 
that  the  young  duck  swims  as  well  as  its  mother,  the  young 
bee  builds  its  cell  as  well  as  its  sire,  and  so  forth — but  the 
fact  is  that  at  least  many  young  animals  require  tuition  for 
the  proper  development  both  of  their  physical  and  mental 
nature,  just  as  the  human  child  does. 

And  the  degree  and  direction  of  development  depend  very 
much  on  the  kind  or  character  of  the  education  employed. 
In  a  great  many  cases  the  direct  influence  of  the  parent  or 
parents  is  obvious ;  in  others  it  is  not  so.  But,  whether  it  is 
so  or  not,  various  kinds  of  self-tuition — the  teachings  of 
experience — exist  among  all  the  higher  and  more  intelligent 
animals. 

There  are  also  sundry  cases  in  which  older,  experienced 
animals,  who  are  not  the  parents  of  their  pupils,  teach  the 
young  and  inexperienced,  or  those  that  are,  while  mature  in 
age,  inexperienced  in  certain  kinds  of  practical  knowledge. 

It  is  frequently,  indeed,  necessary  to  educate  young  ani- 
mals in  so  essential  a  matter  as  the  avoidance  of  poisonous 
food  and  the  selection  of  that  which  is  suitable.  They  have 
to  be  taught,  moreover,  how  best  to  procure  what  food  is 
appropriate,  the  manner  of  seizing  and  eating  it,  the  search 
for  and  pursuit  of  prey.  As  is  pointed  out  in  the  chapters 
on  'Error,'  from  ignorance  or  inexperience  even  animals 
of  mature  age  are  constantly  making  mistakes  as  to  what 
food  and  drink  to  select  or  to  avoid.  The  chicken  has  to  learn 


EDUCATION  OF  ANIMALS  BY  EACH  OTHER.      275 

not  to  eat  its  own  excrement,  as  well  as  how  to  drink,  accord- 
ing to  Spalding,  who  describes  the  awkwardness  of  its  first 
attempts  at  eating  and  drinking. 

Falcons  teach  their  young  to  catch  and  eat  their  prey  in  the 
air,  using  at  first  dead  mice,  then  wounded  individuals,  and 
lastly  living  and  lively  ones.  Here  is  a  good  instance  of  the 
use  of  graduated  or  progressive  lessons,  and  a  satisfactory  proof 
of  intention  in  instruction.  Ants  teach  their  young  to  open 
their  mouths  for  food  (Houzeau).  Parent  partridges  show 
their  young  'the  food  suitable  for  them,  and  teach  them 
how  to  procure  it  by  scratching  the  earth  with  their  claws ' 
('Animal  World').  The  cat  teaches  her  kitten  its  future 
duties  in  mouse-catching  and  hunting,  greediness  being 
sometimes  reproved ;  and  the  bitch  treats  its  pups  similarly 
in  regard  to  rats,  as  has  been  depicted  on  canvas  in  one 
of  Landseer's  celebrated  paintings. 

Young  sea-lions  have  at  first  a  great  aversion  to  water, 
and  are  taught  to  swim  by  their  mothers  (Clarke).  The 
eider  duck  too  gives  its  offspring  lessons  in  swimming,  the 
sea  swallow  in  fishing,  the  eagle  in  flight,  the  horse  and  mule 
in  the  application  of  cautiousness  and  adroitness  in  the 
avoidance  of  obstacles.  The  cat  developes  muscular  agility 
in  her  kittens  by  leading  them  to  play  with  her  tail. 

The  cow  and  goat  instruct  their  young  in  the  use  of  the 
head  as  a  weapon  of  offence  and  defence,  teaching  them,  as 
a  fencing  master  would  his  pupils,  how  to  make  and  avoid 
thrusts.  Parent  rooks  teach  their  young  first  to  hop  and 
then  to  fly ;  the  young  make  experimental  voyages,  and  they 
are  encouraged  to  effort  by  sounds  and  gestures  in  their 
parents  (White). 

Here  too  we  have  graduated  lessons,  and  procedure  on  the 
part  of  the  mother  teacher  suitable  to  the  age  and  progress 
of  her  pupils.  The  swift  teaches  her  young  alertness  or 
alacrity  (White).  In  the  swallow  there  is  systematic  tuition 
or  training  by  parents  ('  Percy  Anecdotes/  Wingel).  It  is  the 
special  business  of  the  neuters  among  the  Hymenoptera  to 
instruct  the  young  (Houzeau). 

Among  other  animals  that  educate  their  young  in  such 
useful  qualities  or  accomplishments  as  industry,  food-selee- 


276      EDUCATION  OF  ANIMALS  BY  EACH  OTHEE. 

tion,  the  use  of  proper  precautions  against  danger,  the  esti- 
mation of  the  kind  and  amount  of  peril,  present  or  threatened, 
the  determination  of  the  necessity  or  propriety  of  flight  or 
migration,  and  of  the  means  of  setting  about  either,  is  the 
wolf  (Low).  The  cat  teaches  caution  and  domestic  cleanli- 
ness to  its  kittens  (*  Animal  World ') .  Many  bird  parents  teach 
song — e.g.  the  wren  ('  Percy  Anecdotes ') .  Many  young  birds 
require  tuition  in  song,  inasmuch  as  they  are  not  natural 
songsters  (Darwin). 

There  are  many  cases  in  which,  as  has  been  already 
said,  the  young  are  taught  by  elders  or  seniors  who  are  not 
their  parents.  This  includes  the  category  of  foster  parents 
and  foster  young,  where  the  teacher  and  pupil  belong  to 
different  genera  or  species.  Thus  we  are  told  of  an  old  cat 
giving  a  young  one,  not  of  its  own  progeny,  f  a  lesson  of 
patience  or  self-denial,  or  imposing  a  fear  of  punishment ' 
('  Nature '),  and  of  another,  a  disabled  old  torn,  teaching  a 
young  one,  not  its  own,  to'  avoid  the  bustle  and  moving  mer- 
chandise of  a  London  city  warehouse  (Wynter).  Old  mules 
encourage  young  ones,  as  they  also  do  each  other,  to  per- 
severance or  exertion  (Watson). 

There  are  certain  other  cases  in  which  animals  train  or 
teach  each  other,  though  they  do  not  stand  in  the  relation 
of  old  and  young  and  do  not  belong  to  the  same  genus  or 
species.  In  the  first  place,  animals  that  have  been  trained 
by  man  are  sometimes  employed  by  him  to  teach  their  own 
fellows.  Thus,  in  the  training  or  breaking  in  of  sporting 
dogs,  old,  thoroughly  trained,  '  well-bred '  dogs  are  used  in 
teaching  the  young — man  here,  however,  supervising  the 
process  and  progress  of  tuition.  On  the  other  hand,  wild 
horses  sometimes  teach  domestic  ones  their  own  vices  (Baden 
Powell),  by  the  force  of  temptation  on  the  part  of  the  seducer 
and  of  imitation  on  that  of  the  seduced. 

This  teaching  of  vices  or  tricks  to  each  other  is  noticed 
also  in  sporting  dogs  (Walsh).  The  ape,  in  breaking  in  the 
dog  for  riding,  does  so  on  the  principles  employed  by  man  in 
breaking  in  his  horses  (Houzeau). 

The  following  features  are  common  in  the  instruction  of 
the  young  by  their  parents  or  seniors.  In  the  first  place,  it 


EDUCATION  OF  ANIMALS  BY  EACH  OTHER.      277 

is  direct  and  voluntary  (Houzeau).  It  involves  metliod  and 
design — for  instance,  in  the  cat,  that  encourages  the  play  of 
her  kittens  and  that  herself  plays  with  them,  such  play  being 
directly  and  obviously  conducive  to  the  development  of  bodily 
agility.  In  the  tuition  of  the  young,  parents  and  elders 
apply  in  various  ways  their  own  experience.  They  employ 
equally  commendation  or  reward  and  punishment  or  re- 
buke. 

Among  ants  the  masters  teach  or  train  their  slaves  in  or 
by  fear,  though  the  result  is  good,  as  these  slaves  become 
true  servants  (Figuier).  Pigeons  are  taught  to  fly  by  the 
medium  of  hunger,  of  physical  need  or  necessity,  artificially 
or  intentionally  created  by  the  parent  bird  withholding  food 
— just  as  man  does  in  training  his  courier  birds  (Herbert). 

In  certain  cases  there  is  a  special  education  of  certain 
individuals,  as  of  the  queen  by  hive  bees  (Kirby  and  Spence) ; 
there  is  a  distinctively  physical  training  given  to  the  young 
queens  by  bee-nurses  (Figuier).  , 

Certain  birds  and  other  animals  set  forth  their  own  ex- 
ample to  their  young,  with  the  evident  object  of  its  imitation 
by  them ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  is  by  imitation 
that  the  acquisition  of  ability — physical  and  mental — takes 
place,  in  the  first  instance,  in  the  young  of  all  the  higher 
animals,  as  is  the  case  also  in  the  human  child. 

On  the  part  of  the  pupil,  as  has  been  partly  pointed  out 
in  the  chapter  on  '  Capacity  for  Education,'  various  mental 
qualities  are  implied.  There  must  be,  in  the  first  place,  a 
certain  receptivity — a  capacity  for  learning,  as  well  as  a 
willingness  to  learn.  Then  there  is  the  powerful  faculty  of 
imitation,  whereby  young  animals  learn  to  do  what  they  see 
done  by  their  parents  or  seniors.  Next  there  is  natural 
curiosity  or  inquisitiveness,  a  desire  to  know  the  real  nature 
of  things — perhaps,  in  the  first  place,  in  reference  simply  to 
whether  they  are  safe  or  dangerous. 

This  curiosity — thirst  for  knowledge — in  many  young 
animals  leads  to  the  development  of  observation,  attention, 
investigation,  and  even  experiment.  In  all  kinds  of  instruc- 
tion memory  is  of  quite  as  great  importance  as  in  man.  In  cer- 
tain animals  there  is  not  only  anxiety  to  learn,  but  diligence 


278  EDUCATION   OF   ANIMALS  BY  EACH  OTHER. 

in  study ;  they  make  efforts  to  excel,  display  an  honourable 
emulation  or  rivalry  —  for  instance,  monkeys  (Rengger). 
Moreover,  there  is  a  recognition  of  their  parents  or  elders 
as  their  mentors  (Houzeau) — a  recognition  that  implies  or 
includes  obedience  and  respect. 

Much  more  general,  or  at  least  more  obvious,  than  the 
teaching  of  parents  or  elders  is  the  teaching  of  experience. 
Young,  intelligent  animals  rapidly  acquire  experience  and 
profit  by  it,  so  that  the  behaviour  of  the  old  or  experienced 
and  the  young  or  inexperienced  animal,  under  the  same 
circumstances,  differs  in  a  very  marked  way.  Thus  the 
different  results  of  experience  and  inexperience  are  some- 
times well  seen  in  the  same  troop  of  military  horses — in  the 
different  behaviour  of  old  and  young  animals  in  stampedes 
or  panics.  Inexperience  of  man  as  an  enemy  is  obvious  in 
certain  unsophisticated  wild  animals.  Young  harriers  hunt 
without  reflection,  making  no  allowance  for  the  doubling 
of  the  hare,  while  ,the  old  ones  leave  the  fatigues  of  the 
chase  to  the  young,  themselves  watching  and  waiting  for 
their  easier  and  proper  opportunity  (Houzeau).  Experience 
teaches,  in  the  first  place,  what  to  trust  or  to  fear,  what  to 
eat,  drink,  or  avoid,  or  what  gives  bodily  pain.  Thus  a 
London  railway  dog  was  deterred,  by  its  having  been  once 
burned  by  a  red-hot  cinder  from  the  locomotive  furnace, 
from  travelling  a  second  time  by  the  engine  or  tender ;  it 
speedily  learned  to  avoid  what  had  produced  danger  and 
pain.  Experience,  too,  enables  hunted  animals  to  avoid 
snares. 

Animals  apply  their  acquired  experience  to  their  conduct 
in  new  cases  or  circumstances.  They  profit  by  failure  or 
non-success,  which  prompts  them  to  make  further  and  suc- 
cessful efforts.  Thus  the  dog,  in  swimming,  learns  to  make 
allowance  for  tides,  eddies,  and  currents.  Many  animals 
profit  by  the  very  accidents  that  befall  them.  The  bee  does 
this  after  an  attack  on  its  nest  by  the  death's-head  moth ; 
it  accepts  the  incident  as  a  warning  of  what  is  likely  to 
happen  again, -and  it  forthwith  makes  provision  for  the  con- 
tingency (Kirby  and  Spence).  Bees  also  not  only  steady 
falling  combs,  but  they  learn  this  lesson  from  their  totter- 


EDUCATION  OF  ANIMALS  BY  EACH  OTHEE.      279 

ing  condition — to  strengthen  other  weak  combs,  so  as  to 
prevent  a  similar  condition  in  them.  They  discover  the  cause 
of  the  fall  in  one  case  and  the  means  of  preventing  a  similar 
accident  in  other  cases. 

The  lessons  of  experience  have  to  be  learned  gradually  or 
suddenly — frequently  at  great  cost  to  the  individual,  its 
family,  or  race. 

Just  as  happens  in  man,  there  are  individuals  among 
the  lower  animals  so  peculiarly  constituted  mentally  that 
they  do  not  gain  knowledge  from  experience.  This,  how- 
ever, is  exceptional,  and  can  usually  at  least  be  attributed 
to  the  presence  of  mental  defect  or  disorder.  The  subject  is 
fully  discussed  in  the  chapters  on  *  Mental  Defect  and  Derange- 
ment,' on  '  Stupidity,'  and  on  '  Error.' 

It  is  of  interest  to  bear  in  mind  that  experience  is  of  two 
kinds — 

1.  That  which  is  acquired  by  the  individual',  and — 

2.  That  which  has  been  accumulated  by  generations  of 
individuals,  and  has  been  transmitted  by  or  from  ancestry 
(Lewes) ;  while — 

3.  Of  the  two,  ancestral,  inherited  experience  is  in  certain 
respects  the  more  important  (Spalding). 

Self -education,  tuition,  or  improvement  occurs  in  other 
animals,  under  the  same  circumstances  as  in  man,  involving 
the  same  mental  qualities,  developed  or  displayed  in  the 
same  way.  Various  birds  learn  for  themselves  the  songs  or 
notes  of  other  genera  or  species,  and  they  have  concerts  among 
themselves  (Darwin)  ;  at  least  they  do  so  in  confinement 
(Baird) — though  it  does  not  appear  how  captivity  operates — 
possibly  simply  because  then  only  is  the  acquisition  noted 
or  notable  by  man.  Self-education  includes,  for  instance, 
the  learning  of  lessons  by  practice.  Various  song  birds  and 
other  animals  learn  their  lessons  as  children  do.  This  takes 
place  in  the  mocking  bird  ('  Percy  Anecdotes ')  and  jay 
(Jesse).  Elephants  have  their  rehearsals  by  themselves,  as 
was  long  ago  pointed  out  by  Pliny,  and  has  been  confirmed 
in  modern  times  by  Buckland;  they  practise  for  their  danc- 
ing feats  (Pliny) .  The  horse  too  practises  its  dancing  lessons. 
There  is  a  regular  practising  by  the  young  of  manoeuvres 


280      EDUCATION  OF  ANIMALS  BY  EACH  OTHER. 

prior  to  the  migration  of  certain  birds.  The  nightingale 
*  records '  or  practises  the  notes  of  other  species. 

*  Practice  makes  perfection/  or  at  least  tends  towards  it, 
in  other  animals  as  in  man;  steadiness  in  lesson-learning 
leads  sooner  or  later  to  excellence.  Practice  has  the  same 
kind  of  effect  in  developing  and  improving  the  various  mental 
faculties  of  other  animals  as  in  man.  Its  beneficial  results 
are  perhaps  better  seen  in  the  efforts  of  song  than  in  the 
arts  of  construction. 

This  learning  of  lessons  involves  the  perception  and  cor- 
rection of  mistakes,  and  progress  or  improvement  in  song, 
flight,  nest-building,  and  other  accomplishments.  It  implies 
also  what  in  man  is  called  study,  which  is  exhibited  in  various 
ways  and  degrees.  Birds  study,  for  instance,  how  best  to 
display  their  own  physical  beauty  (Darwin). 

8  elf -tuition  includes  systematic  muscular  exercise — regu- 
lar gymnastic  exercises — in  order  to  due  bodily  culture, 
even  in  insects — e.g.  among  young  ants.  The  play  of  all 
young  animals  is  to  be  regarded  as  an  important  part  of 
physical  education,  as  a  means  of  imparting  or  developing 
that  bodily  agility  which  is  so  necessary  in  the  struggle  for 
life.  Hence  their  mimic  fights  and  races,  their  gambols, 
games,  sports,  pastimes  of  all  kinds,  have  a  high  educational 
value,  as  well  as  an  important  relation  to  health,  mental  and 
bodily. 


LANGUAGE. 

CHAPTER    XI. 

LANGUAGE   IN   LOWER   MAN. 

PRESUMPTUOUS  man  never  made  a  graver  mistake  than 
when  he  distinctively  defined  himself  as  differing  from  all 
other  animals  in  the  possession  of  language.  He  has  fallen 
into  error  by  ignorance  of  what  language  is — '  any  manner 
of  expressing  thought,'  and,  it  may  be  added  of  expressing 
feeling,  idea,  wish,  or  intention.  This  is  the  comprehensive 
sense  of  the  term — the  sense  in  which  it  is  used  in  this 
volume.  It  is  the  definition  of  the  word  according  to  the 
most  recent  English  dictionaries. 

Speech,  articulate  language,  written  and  printed  language, 
are  mere  forms  of  language,  the  forms  with  which  civilised 
nations  are  no  doubt  most  familiar;  but  they  are  neither 
the  most  common  nor  the  most  important  forms  of  general 
language,  which  includes  many  kinds  of  what  have  been 
variously  denominated  gesture,  sign,  pantomimic  or  mimic, 
sound,  look,  and  eye  language.  In  other  words,  even  in 
man  the  outward,  visible,  or  audible  exponents  of  feeling 
and  thought  are  both  numerous  and  varied — constituting  a 
general  language  of  expression. 

Those  forms  of  physical  expression  which  are  not  vocal — 
for  instance,  the  language  of  the  look  or  eye — are  frequently 
incomparably  more  powerful  in  their  influence — more  elo- 


282  LANGUAGE  IN  LOWER  MAN. 

quent,  more  intelligible — than  any  of  the  ordinary  forms 
of  verbal,  spoken,  written,  or  printed  language,  appealing 
much  more  immediately  to  the  heart  if  not  to  the  head,  to 
the  feelings  if  not  to  the  intellect.  The  language  of  simple 
emotion  is  used  by  man  to  a  much  greater  extent  than  he  is 
aware,  frequently  superseding  what  has  been  called  '  intel- 
lectual '  language  by  Carpenter. 

Language  is  too  much  regarded  as  synonymous  with  mere 
articulate  speech.  We  forget  that  the  articulation  or  pro- 
nunciation of  words — that  verbal  language — is  not  a  native 
attribute  of  man,  is  not  innate,  but  the  result  of  imitation 
and  training  (Houzeau) — in  other  words,  a  gradual  acquisi- 
tion. We  also  forget  the  non-necessity  for  words  in  the 
formation  of  thought,  in  the  interchange  of  ideas.  We 
constantly  lose  sight  of  the  possibility  of  thinking  without 
giving  audible  expression  to  our  thoughts,  or  of  signifying  our 
feelings,  wishes,  requirements,  or  intentions  otherwise  than 
by  word  of  mouth,  by  writing,  or  by  printing. 

The  student  of  comparative  language  cannot  too  soon 
disabuse  himself  of  the  notion  thab  words  are  indispensable 
to  the  expression  of  feelings  or  ideas,  that  words  are  essen- 
tial either  to  thought  or  to  language.  In  all  countries  the 
dumb  make  themselves  understood,  and  understand  each 
other,  or  those  who  can  make  use  of  their  special  form  of 
language,  by  means  of  symbols,  sign  language,  or  other  sub- 
stitutional  modes  of  expression. 

They  cannot  utter  words,  but  they  can  write  and  read — 
those  of  them  who  are  educated — and  it  would  be  absurd  to 
deny  to  them  the  possession  of  ideas  and  feelings,  the  faculty 
of  thought.  Erasmus  Darwin  gives  a  case  in  which  speech 
was  lost  in  a  deaf  man  by  disuse,  gesture  language  super- 
seding it ;  so  that,  even  in  civilised  races  and  individuals, 
articulate  language  requires  cultivation  and  practice. 

Unlinguistic  tourists  on  the  Continent  manage  to  find 
their  way  and  to  get  what  they  want  by  somewhat  similar 
means — the  use  of  gesture  or  pantomime  language.  I  have 
myself  found  less  difficulty  in  understanding,  and  being  un- 
derstood by,  the  natives  of  countries  with  whose  printed  or 
spoken  language  I  was  unacquainted,  or  imperfectly  ac- 


LANGUAGE  IN  LOWER  MAN.  283 

quainted,  when  I  and  they  made  use  of  signs  or  pantomime, 
than  in  understanding  the  verbal  language  of  a  London 
servant  girl.  The  talk  of  the  latter  has  been  to  me,  in  fact, 
sometimes  quite  unintelligible ;  it  was  impossible  for  me  to 
understand  either  what  she  said,  meant,  or  wanted. 

I  have  not  experienced  similar  difficulty  in  New  Zealand 
with  the  Maoris,  in  Egypt,  Syria,  or  Morocco  with  the 
Arabs,  in  Iceland  with  the  Icelanders,  or  in  Norway  and 
other  parts  of  the  continent  of  Europe. 

Gesture  language  alone  is  made  use  of  by  certain  monks 
(Darwin).  It  is  largely  employed  by  some  of  the  most 
highly  civilised  peoples  possessed  of  a  beautiful  and  copious 
spoken,  written,  and  printed. language — for  instance,  by  the 
French — and  the  superior  eloquence  and  intelligibility  of 
their  non-vocal  forms  of  expression  are  frequently  obvious 
to  the  English  tourist  in  France. 

The  writer  of  a  recent  tract  on  the  life  of  the  factory 
girls  of  Lancashire  says,  'I  have  seen  girls  in  the  Lan- 
cashire mills — perhaps  a  dozen  or  twenty  yards  apart — amid 
the  deafening  noise  of  spinning  and  weaving  machinery,  tell 
one  another  many  a  long  tale  on  different  subjects,  the 
tender  passion  included,  all  by  motions  of  the  mouth  and 
arms.'1  The  practice  of  some  modern  elocutionists — such  as 
Mr.  Melville  Bell,  of  Edinburgh,  in  their  methods  of  teaching 
the  dumb  to  speak,  shows  that  ideas  can  be  conveyed  by  the 
mere  movements  of  the  lips  without  the  utterance  of  any 
kind  of  sound.  The  late  Sir  Benjamin  Brodie  mentions  a 
deaf  girl  who  could  tell  her  mother's  meaning  by  the  mo- 
tions of  her  lips  and  the  play  of  her  features. 

Again,  what  has  been  called  the  dumb  commerce  of  Mexico, 
ancient  China  and  Africa,  and  the  modern  East,  shows  that 
buying  and  selling,  interrogation  and  reply,  all  the  details  of 
purchase  or  sale  in  the  Eastern  bazaar,  can  be,  and  are,  carried 
on  by  gesture,  symbols,  hieroglyphic  language,  and  without 
words.  Many  idiots  express  themselves  only  by  signs  (Ire- 
land) ;  and  there  is  much  pantomimic  language  also  in  the 
insane  adult  as  well  as  in  the  sane  child. 

And,  lastly,  there  is  a  loss  of  the  so-called  faculty  of 
1  'North  British  Daily  Mail,'  November  17,  1874. 


284  LANGUAGE  IN  LOWER  MAN. 

language,  of  intellectual  expression — which  merely  means 
the  capability  of  giving  expression  in  words  to  thought  or 
emotion — in  certain  forms  of  organic  disease  of  the  brain, 
especially  in  those  recently  described  as  aphasia  and  amnesia. 

Houzeau  points  out  that  in  pre-historic  man  there  was 
probably  either  no  articulate  language,  or  it  was  confined  to 
mere  interjections  or  cries,  which  form  part  of  the  vocal 
language  of  other  animals.  The  earliest  form  of  language 
in  man  is  probably  the  expression  of  pleasure  and  pain,  of 
joy  and  grief,  of  surprise  and  satisfaction.  But  the  same 
emotion  is  frequently  differently  expressed  by  different  races 
or  individuals  (Houzeau).  The  cries  wrung  from  man  under 
agony  or  distress  are  involuntary,  spontaneous,  and  natural. 
They  may  be  referred  to  what  is  called  animal  language,  or 
emotional  language,  or  imitative  language,  in  contradistinc- 
tion to  that  which  has  been  denominated  by  Max  Miiller, 
Carpenter,  Tylor,  and  others  '  rational '  or  *  intellectual.' 
But  this  emotional  language  is  at  least  as  eloquent  and  as 
intelligible  as  rational  language  can  possibly  be. 

The  distinction  between  emotional  and  rational  language 
is  purely  artificial.  The  one  passes  into  the  other,  and  both, 
in  different  degrees,  are  possessed  by  other  animals  as  well 
as  man.  Tennyson  describes  the  human  infant,  '  crying  in 
the  night'  and  '  crying  for  the  light,'  as  having  '  no  language 
but  a  cry.'  The  language  of  the  infant  unquestionably  con- 
sists at  first  of  mere  cries  or  calls,  like  those  of  many  other 
young  animals. 

The  savage,  if  he  possess  and  express  any  sense  of  bereave- 
ment, does  so  by  cries  or  wails  (Houzeau).  He  employs  noise, 
including  cries,  to  terrify  certain  animals — e.g.  the  shark — 
just  as  the  lower  animals  intimidate  their  enemies  (Houzeau). 

Various  authors  regard  this  simple  animal  cry  as  the 
rudiment  of  speech — the  root  of  all  verbal  language. 

Even  in  civilised  man  grunting  occurs  from  surliness, 
and  growling  from  dissatisfaction,  anger,  or  resentment. 

There  are  many  peoples  destitute  of  written  and  printed 
language,  and  not  a  few  savage  races  that  can  scarcely  be 
said  to  possess  a  spoken  language,  or  even  distinctly  articulate 
speech.  In  certain  cases  their  language — of  whatever 


LANGUAGE  IN  LOWER  MAN.  285 

character — is  very  limited  or  rudimentary.  Thus  certain 
aborigines  of  Borneo  have  no  language  of  their  own,  and 
only  learn  with  great  labour  to  pronounce  a  few  Malay 
words  (Biichner).  Savage  peoples  have  frequently  no  mne- 
monic signs ;  the  language  of  expression  in  them  is  much 
the  same  as  it  is  in  many  animals.  Thus  their  mode  of 
salutation  or  greeting  is  not  more  expressive,  consisting  as 
it  does  either  of — 

1.  Some  simple  gesture. 

2.  Touching  noses  ;  or — 

3.  Rubbing  other  parts  of  the  body  against  each  other. 
Or  their  language  consists  of  mere  inarticulate  sounds  of 

the  nature  of  shrieks — e.g.  in  certain  natives  of  the  Philippine 
Islands  or  among  the  South  African  Bushmen.  Brazilian 
Botokudos  *  speak  little  to  one  another,  but  rather  mutually 
grunt  and  snuffle.'  The  Apache  Indian  « speaks  little,  and 
rather  in  gesture  than  sounds.'  The  speech  of  the  Fans  of 
Western  Africa  is  a  collection  of  gutturals,  unintelligible  to 
white  races ;  it  '  can  scarcely  be  called  a  language  in  the 
human  sense  of  that  word.'  The  talk  of  the  savages  of 
Borneo  and  Sumatra  is  described  as  a  sort  of  cackle  or  croak. 
'  Generally  savages  are  accustomed  to  talk  more  by  gesture 
and  looks '  than  by  voice.  Thus  the  Yeddas  of  Ceylon 
use  only  '  signs,  grimaces,  and  guttural  sounds  (Biichner). 
Houzeau  remarks  on  the  paucity  of  letter  sounds  in  savage 
languages. 

Various  classes  of  human  idiots  neither  speak  nor  under- 
stand speech ;  others  speak,  but  do  not  understand  speech 
(Ireland).  Their  only  voice-sounds  are  frequently  mere 
whines  or  cries  (Hitchman).  Their  defects  or  peculiarities  of 
voice  and  speech  have  been  commented  on  by  many  of  those 
authorities  who  have  had  special  opportunities  of  studying 
the  phenomena  of  idiocy.  One  microcephalic  idiot  described 
by  Professor  Cesare  Lombroso  chirped  like  a  bird  j  a  second 
paralytic  idiot,  described  by  the  same  authority,  '  cannot 
speak,  or  even  converse  by  signs.'  The  absence  of  spoken 
language,  non-understanding  of  man's  speech,  words,  or 
phrases,  howling  or  yelling  by  night  and  whining  by  day,  are 
among  the  bestial  traits  or  habits  of  the  wolf-children  of 
India. 


286  LANGUAGE  IN  LOWER  MAN. 

Of  one  of  them  Gerhardt  says,  *  He  has  learnt  to  make 
sounds.  Speak  he  cannot,  but  freely  expresses  his  anger  and 
joy.'  Of  another,  'They  tried  to  make  him  speak,  but 
could  get  nothing  from  him  but  an  angry  growl  or  snarl.3  A 
third  '  could  never  be  brought  to  speak.  He  used  to  mutter 
something,  but  never  articulated  any  word  distinctly.'  A 
fourth  *  could  not  speak.  He  could  be  made  to  understand 
signs  very  well,  but  would  utter  sounds  like  wild  animals.' 
A  fifth  'could  never  be  made  to  speak,'  while  a  sixth 
'  could  not  be  brought  to  speak,  though  it  was  easy  to  com- 
municate with  him  by  signs.*  A  seventh — a  case  recorded 
by  Colonel  Sleeman — 'never  could  understand  or  utter  a 
word,  though  he  seemed  to  understand  signs.'  And  Max 
Miiller,  commenting  on  the  histories  of  wolf-children  in 
India,  refers  to  their  speechlessness  as  a  trait  common  to 
all. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  many  idiots,  imbeciles,  and 
lunatics  that,  giving  up  permanently  or  for  the  time  their 
own  language,  speech — their  use  of  words — imitate  the 
language,  along  with  the  habits,  of  various  wild  animals. 
Thus  the  victim  of  spurious  hydrophobia,  who  fancies  he  has 
been  bitten  by  a  rabid  dog,  and  that  so  he  has  been  inocu- 
lated with  a  dog's  propensities,  barks,  howls,  and  whines  like 
a  dog. 

Those  persons  who  were  affected  with  certain  of  the  epi- 
demic delusions  of  the  Middle  Ages— the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries — and  who.  fancied  they  had  been  trans- 
formed into  wolves,  dogs,  horses,  cats,  lions,  cows,  sparrows, 
or  cuckoos,  imitated  the  cries  or  notes  of  these  animals, 
neighing  like  horses,  mewing  like  cats,  and  so  on,  according 
to  the  speciality  of  their  delusion.  And,  lastly,  various 
simian,  pithecoid,  or  apelike  microcephalic  idiots  are  as  imi- 
tative as  monkeys,  mimicking  all  man's  gestures. 

Verbal  language,  then,  is  not  innate  in  man,  but  '  a 
diflicult  acquisition,'  as  Grimm  calls  it,  as  gradual  and 
difficult  in  the  race  as  in  the  individual. 

It  may  be  supposed  to  constitute  a  certain  linguistic 
difference  between  man  and  other  animals  that  verbal 
language  and  the  language  of  facial  expression — physiogno- 


LANGUAGE  IN  LOWER  MAN.  287 

mical  control — are  alike  used  so  frequently  in  or  by  man  to 
conceal — not  to  express — his  real  sentiments. 

It  may  or  may  not  be  true  that,  as  Talleyrand  says, 
*  language  was  given  to  us  for  the  concealment  of  our 
thoughts.'  But  it  is  certainly  abundantly  true  that  man  fre- 
quently makes  use  of  words  to  pervert  or  obscure  his  real 
ideas  or  feelings.  It  is,  however,  a  mere  assumption,  and 
an  incorrect  one,  that  in  other  animals  there  is  always  a 
transparency  or  intelligibility  of  motive,  feeling,  or  thought 
— that  '  he  who  runs  may  read '  the  ideas,  the  wants,  or 
wishes  of  his  dog,  for  instance. 

In  point  of  fact,  as  is  pointed  out  in  the  chapter  on 
'  Deception,'  the  language  employed  is  not  necessarily  or 
always  a  key  to  the  real  emotions,  desires,  or  designs  of 
shrewd,  cunning,  ingenious  animals.  They  are  quite 
capable,  for  adequate  reasons,  of  masking  their  real  inten- 
tions— of  misrepresenting  their  real  condition,  so  as  con- 
stantly to  deceive  man  himself  and  throw  him  off  his  guard. 

Even  among  the  most  highly  civilised  races  of  man,  and 
in  the  most  highly  educated  individuals,  the  natural,  universal 
language  of  emotion  asserts  itself  as  dominant  over  all  other, 
conventional  forms  of  language.  Dr.  Gustav  Jager  refers, 
for  instance,  to  the  simple  emotional  cry  produced  by  intense 
feeling,  such  as  the  fear  of  death  (Biichner). 

Let  us  ever  remember  that,  among  even  civilised  races — 

a.  Different  nations  do  not  understand  each  others' 
language — spoken,  written,  and  printed — without  laborious 
study  and  incessant  practice. 

&.  In  the  same  people  the  written,  printed,  or  spoken 
language  of  the  educated  is  little,  or  not  at  all,  under- 
stood by  the  uneducated  classes ;  the  language  of  the  meta- 
physician or  mathematician,  theologian  or  poet,  philosopher 
or  man  of  science,  is  utterly  unintelligible  to  the  common 
run  of  the  populace. 

c.  The  application  or  use  of  mere  spoken,  written,  and 
printed  language  is  therefore  very  limited. 

And  on  the  other  hand  let  us  bear  in  mind  that — 

d.  The  only  form  of  language  which  is  universal  in  man 
and  intelligible  among  all  races  and  peoples  is  that  which 

20 


288  LANGUAGE  IN  LOWER  MAN. 

is  common  to  other  animals,  and  equally  useful  to  them 
and  to  man.  Laughter  and  weeping,  the  shout  of  joy,  the 
cry  of  alarm,  the  groan  of  pain,  or  the  other  sounds,  the 
looks,  attitudes,  gestures,  or  other  signs  whereby  both  man 
and  animals  express  their  feelings  of  body  or  mind — con- 
stitute a  common  or  natural  language,  understood  as  a  rule 
by  all  races,  genera,  and  species. 

The  mental  phenomena  of  deaf-mutism  in  the  most  highly 
civilised  communities,  in  relation  to  man's  modes  of  ex- 
pressing his  feelings  and  ideas,  are  most  instructive.  The 
congenitally  deaf  and  dumb,  in  whom  the  dumbness  is  the 
natural  result  of  the  deafness,  are  '  ignorant  of  all  ordinary 
written  and  spoken  language ; '  but,  nevertheless,  they  are 
quite  capable  of  education  to  a  high  degree. 

This  instruction  of  the  deaf-mute  is  conducted  partly 
by  gestures  and  signs,  whereby  is  imparted  a  knowledge  of 
things.  In  a  church  for  deaf-mutes  in  New  York,  we  are 
told,  '  one  service  every  Sunday  is  conducted  in  the  language 
of  signs.'  Sounds,  therefore,  are  not  necessary  to  the  com- 
munication of  ideas ;  a  circumstance  that  is  shown,  more- 
over, by  the  fact  that  *  it  is  a  common  thing  for  a  man  to 
teach  himself  to  read  a  language  though  he  cannot  pro- 
nounce it '  ('  Chambers's  Encyclopaedia '). 

Again,  the  expressiveness  of  attitude  in  man,  in  relation 
both  to  ideas  and  emotions,  is  well  illustrated  by  the  phe- 
nomena of  braidism  or  hypnotism  (Carpenter) — of  what  is 
commonly  but  erroneously  described  as  animal  magnetism, 
electro-biology,  or  mesmerism. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

LANGUAGE    IN    OTHER   ANIMALS. 

IN  contempt,  pity,  or  ignorance — or  perhaps  under  the  influ- 
ence of  all  these  feelings  or  conditions — man  is  in  the  habit 
of  designating  the  lower  animals  '  poor  dumb  creatures.'  The 
fact  is,  however,  that  they  possess  a  language  much  more 
comprehensive  than,  and  quite  as  eloquent  as,  his  own — 
much  more  generally  intelligible  than  is  his  verbal  language, 
which  is  merely  one  form  of  language  or  expression — that 
only  with  which  he,  in  his  pride  and  prejudice,  is  most 
familiar. 

Certain  animals  are  not  absolutely  unacquainted  with 
verbal  language — with  speech — as  is  shown  in  another 
chapter ;  but  they  have  a  very  affluent  language  of  sound, 
look,  and  action,  capable  of  expressing  not  only  emotion  but 
ideas  or  thoughts,  plans  or  intentions,  wishes  or  require- 
ments. Houzeau  points  out  the  inferiority  of  the  language 
of  certain  savages  to  that  of  various  animals,  and  Darwin 
shows  the  superior  expressiveness  to  mere  words  of  the  in- 
articulate cries,  which,  along  with  feature-play,  eye  or  look 
language,  and  gesture  or  attitude,  are  common  to  man  with 
other  animals. 

There  is  sometimes  a  superiority  in  eloquence  in  favour  of 
the  lower  animals  as  regards  the  mode  of  expression  of  the 
same  emotion — for  instance,  of  love  and  humility  in  the  dog. 

Man  falls  into  many  grave  or  absurd  errors  from  his 
ignorance  of  animal  language,  which  language  naturally 
becomes  intelligible  just  in  proportion  as  it  is  studied.  He 
gives  much  pains  in  his  youth  to  the  study  of  the  languages 
of  ancient  Greece  or  Home,  or  of  modern  Germany  and 


290  LANGUAGE  IN   OTHER  ANIMALS. 

France,  and  he  finds  too  frequently,  after  long  courses  of 
serious  effort,  that  his  knowledge  of  them  is  very  imperfect. 

But  it  never  appears  to  strike  him  as  equally  necessary,  if 
he  is  to  understand  the  language  of  the  lower  animals,  that 
he  must  give  a  corresponding  attention  to  its  study.  Even 
in  our  universities,  or  wherever — as  in  Germany — it  is  scien- 
tifically taught  or  studied,  comparative  philology  includes 
only  the  spoken,  written,  and  printed  languages  of  man. 

The  veiy  name  philology  is  literally  a  fondness  for  words — 
mere  words — that  is,  for  one  form  merely  of  the  expression 
of  feeling  or  thought.  Comparative  language,  however,  should 
obviously  include  all  forms  of  expression,  not  those  only  that 
are  vocal  or  that  are  represented  by  words.  A  chair  or  pro- 
fessorship of  comparative  language  should  exist  in  all  our 
great  universities,  and  due  attention  should  be  given  to 
those  rudimentary  forms  of  expression  that  are  common  to 
other  animals  with  man,  and  that  are  much  more  practically 
important  than  that  limited  form  of  language  which  is 
spoken,  written,  or  printed. 

As  has  been  pointed  out  in  the  preceding  chapter,  even 
in  man  himself  the  latter  form  or  forms  of  language  do  not 
always  occur,  while  in  such  birds  as  the  parrot  very  distinct 
speech  and  very  appropriate  remarks  are  occasionally  ex- 
hibited or  made.  In  a  succeeding  chapter  it  is  shown  that 
by  mutual  understanding  of  each  other's  language  conversa- 
tion becomes  possible  between  man  and  his  dog. 

Man  soon  learns  to  understand  the  meaning  or  signifi- 
cance of  the  feature-changes,  of  the  gestures,  attitudes,  or 
movements,  of  the  vocal  utterances,  of  other  animals  when 
it  becomes  his  interest  to  do  so — when,  in  order  to  their 
training,  for  instance,  for  this  or  that  purpose  of  his  own, 
he  has  to  interpret  their  thoughts  and  feelings,  gauge  their 
tempers  and  temperament,  form  an  estimate  of  their  character 
or  capabilities,  ascertain  the  kind  and  amount  of  their  intelli- 
gence. And  similarly  the  dog,  elephant,  horse,  and  other 
animals,  when  a  sufficient  motive  arises,  and  they  have  the 
necessary  opportunity,  speedily  learn  man's  language — not 
the  meaning  of  his  looks  and  acts  merely,  but  frequently  of 
his  words,  phrases,  and  conversation. 


LANGUAGE  IN   OTHER  ANIMALS.  291 

Dog  language  is  quite  a  study  of  itself,  including  the 
separate  study  of  the — 

1.  Language    of  the   voice— bark,   howl,   whine,   snarl, 
growl. 

2.  Language  of  the  eye  and  look. 

3.  Language  of  the  tail  and  ear. 

4.  Language  of  the  general  attitude — movement,  aspect, 
or  gesture. 

Bird  language — the  language  of  song  in  birds — is  another 
study  by  itself,  and  attention  may  well  be  separately  given 
to  the  different  modes  of  expression  in  particular  groups, 
such  as  poultry,  cage  birds,  and  parrots.  Ant  language, 
again,  is  equally  peculiar  and  interesting. 

Nay,  the  different  .intonations  of  a  single  sound  may  prove 
quite  a  study  of  itself — for  instance,  the  bark  or  howl  of  the 
dog,  the  mewing  or  caterwauling  of  the  cat. 

The  diversity  of  language,  or  its  forms,  even  in  a  single 
family,  is  sometimes  very  marked,  as  much  so  as  it  is  in  the 
various  races  of  mankind.  Thus  among  ants  inhabiting  a 
given  locality  there  may  be  said  to  be  different  peoples,  using 
a  different  language  and  occupying  different  ant-hills  or 
nests,  each  people  or  tribe  being  as  much  distinguished  by 
its  language  as  by  its  territory  or  district  (Houzeau). 

The  recent  experiments  of  Professor  Ferrier,  according 
to  his  own  interpretation  of  the  phenomena,  tend  to  show 
that  human  and  animal  language  are  identical — that  the 
barking  of  the  dog  and  mewing  of  the  cat  are  the  equi- 
valents of  speech  in  man,  and  that  the  faculty  of  language  in 
man  and  other  animals  has  virtually  the  same  seat  in  the 
brain.  He  describes  opening  the  mouth,  putting  out  the 
tongue,  and  barking  in  the  dog,  mewing  and  spitting  or 
hissing  in  the  cat,  as  'signs  corresponding  to  speech.' 
But  it  needed  not  the  experiment  of  the  physiologist  or  the 
pathologist,  or  the  research  of  the  anatomist,  to  tell  us  that 
the  dog's  bark,  the  cat's  mew,  and  the  horse's  neigh,  as  well 
as  corresponding  vocal  expressions  in  other  animals,  are  the 
analogues  of  speech  or  speaking  in  man. 

Language  in  animals — whatever  be  its  nature — is  both 
(a)  natural  and  (6)  acquired.  In  the  latter  case  it  may  be 


292  LANGUAGE  IN   OTHER   ANIMALS. 

the  result  of  (a)  self-tuition  or  of  (6)  man's  instruction  or 
training.  In  both  cases  its  variety  is  to  be  remarked  upon, 
and,  just  as  in  man,  this  variety — which  involves  expressive- 
ness or  the  range  thereof — is  frequently,  if  not  always,  in 
proportion  to  the  degree  of  cultivation  or  education  of  the 
faculty. 

The  interpretation  of  animal  language,  in  its  varied  forms, 
is  of  the  utmost  importance  in  relation  to  the  discrimination 
of  motive.  It  is,  however,  beset  with  difficulties,  which  arise 
mainly  from  the  following  causes  or  sources  : — 

1.  The  significance  of  animal  language  has  been  little 
studied  by  man. 

2.  The  same  feelings  or  thoughts  are  expressed  in  an 
infinite  variety  of  ways,  not  only — 

a.  In  different  tribes,  genera,  or  species,  but — 
&.  In  different  individuals  of  the   same   species — 
different  members  of  the   same   family — dif- 
ferent offspring  of  the  same  parents. 

c.  In  different  sexes  of  the  same  species. 

d.  In  the  same  individual  at  the  same  time,  as  well 

as  at  different  ages  or  times,  or  under  different 
circumstances. 

3.  The  same  outward  expression  may  arise  from  or  indi- 
cate very  different  mental  states. 

4.  Other  animals  than  man — in  proportion  to  their  dif- 
ference in  structure  and  habits — do  not  necessarily  express 
the  same  mental  states  in  the  same  way. 

5.  Even  in  man  there  are  differences  in   the   modes  of 
expression  of  the  same  feelings  or  thoughts :  e.g. — 

a.  In  the  infant  and  the  adult. 

6.  In  the  philosopher  and  the  savage. 

c.  In  health  and  disease. 

6.  In  other  animals,  as   in   man,  there   is  a  wonderful 
power  of  represssion  or  inhibition  of  natural  expression ;  so 
that  real  feelings  and  thoughts  are  successfully  concealed. 

7.  There  is,  further,  a  power  of  assumption  of  expressions 
that  are  intended  to  deceive  man  or  other  animals  as  to  the 
real  mental  condition. 

8.  One  feeling  frequently  expresses  itself  by,  or  leads  to3 


LANGUAGE  IN  OTHER  ANIMALS.          293 

the  instant  development  of  another,  each  having  its  suitable 
and  intelligible  mode  of  outward  manifestation. 

9.  New  expressions  or  modes  thereof  arise  under  new 
conditions  or  circumstances. 

It  is  desirable  to  illustrate  certain  of  these  propositions 
in  order  to  show  the  nature  of  the  difficulties  that  will  con- 
stantly occur  to  the  student  in  the  interpretation  of  animal 


There  are,  in  the  first  place,  then,  certain  peculiarities 
in  the  mode  of  expressing  the  same  feelings,  wants,  ideas, 
in  different  animals.  In  other  words,  there  is  a  difference  in 
the  mode  of  expression — for  instance,  of  an  emotion — accord- 
ing to  the  kind  of  animal ;  there  is  a  natural  aptitude  for  a 
particular  mode  of  expression  in  each  species  and  genus ; 
there  is  even,  in  a  sense,  a  different  language  for  each  great 
group  of  animals  (Houzeau). 

Thus,  while  the  dog  barks,  bites,  growls,  howls,  whines, 
sniffs,  and  snarls,  the  horse  neighs,  kicks,  stamps,  paws, 
snorts,  champs,  and  lashes  its  tail ;  the  cat  purrs,  scratches, 
hisses,  mews ;  cattle  low,  butt,  gore,  bellow ;  the  elephant 
trumpets,  roars,  screams;  the  sheep  and  goat  bleat;  the 
ass  brays ;  the  cock  crows,  and  the  hen  clucks  and  cackles. 

Not  only,  however,  are  there  different  forms  of  language 
in  different  genera  and  species  of  animals,  but  different 
dialects  in  the  same  family.  Thus  we  are  told  that  each 
caste  or  clan  of  ants  has  its  own  language  (Houzeau). 

But,  as  a  per  contra  to  these  peculiarities  of  species  or 
genera,  the  same  physical  expression  is  frequently  common  to 
many  species  or  genera,  though  it  may  not  necessarily  or 
always  have  the  same  significance.  For  instance,  biting,  or 
what  is  equivalent  thereto — snapping  with  beak  or  bill — 
is  common  to  the  dog,  horse,  ass,  wolf,  and  many  birds ; 
howling  is  common  to  the  dog  and  certain  monkeys;  kick- 
ing to  the  horse,  with  many  other  animals ;  tail-lashing  to 
the  horse,  mule,  ass,  and  lion ;  butting  to  sheep  and  goats, 
with  the  ox ;  baying  to  the  dog  and  wolf. 

Expression  may  be  given  to  a  great  variety  of  feelings  or 
ideas  by  the  same  physical  phenomenon.  In  other  words,  the 
same  action  or  kind  of  action  may  result  from  very  different 


294  LANGUAGE  IN   OTHEE  ANIMALS. 

causes—may  have  the  most  different  significance.  The 
most  opposite  passions  or  emotions — such  as  joy  and  grief, 
pleasure  and  anger — may  produce  the  same  or  a  similar 
result  (Reynolds,  Darwin). 

The  orang  expresses  anger,  joy,  and  peevishness  by 
stamping  (Cassell) .  The  hen's  well-known  cluck  may  signify 
either  (a)  food  discovery,  or  (&)  satisfaction  at  the  delivery 
of  an  egg,  or  (c)  maternal  pride  at  seeing  her  brood  around 
her  (Darwin). 

The  camel  expresses,  by  tne  same  sound,  likes  and  dis- 
likes, pleasure  and  annoyance  (Drake).  Elevation  or 
depression  of  head-crests,  wattles,  or  ruffs  occurs  equally 
from  fear,  surprise,  and  curiosity.  Elevation  or  depression 
of  the  crest  in  the  cockatoo  may  arise  from  agitation, 
surprise,  curiosity,  fear  (Baird).  Fondling  or  caressing  of 
the  young  by  mothers  is  the  result  of  love,  grief,  or  regret. 
Expressions  that  in  the  monkey  denote  pleasure,  in  the  dog 
may  proceed  from  anger,  irritation,  or  displeasure  (Darwin). 

The  howl  of  the  dog  may  proceed  from  (a)  bodily  pain  ; 
(b)  loss  of  way  or  master ;  (c)  any  kind  of  disappointment ; 
(d)  grief,  anger,  despair,  or  even  mere  impatience ;  or  (e)  a 
disagreeable  or  agreeable  note  in  music  striking  on  its  sen- 
sitive ear.  Wailing  may  arise  from  bodily  pain,  grief,  expos- 
tulation, protest,  or  refusal. 

The  mewing  of  the  cat  may  express  anguish,  sadness, 
melancholy — the  result  of  ungratified  love  (Pierquin)  —or  it 
may  be  a  mere  signal  of  demand  or  petition  — its  form  of 
making  request — for  instance,  to  be  admitted  to,  or  allowed 
exit  from,  some  given  room.  Moaning  may  be  a  sign  equally 
of  grief,  of  mental  pain,  or  of  that  which  is  purely  physical 
(Cobbe).  The  snort  of  the  horse  may  express  fear  or  aver- 
sion, or  both.  The  snorting  of  the  musk  ox  'is  a  sign 
either  of  fear  or  anger/  says  Captain  Koldeway. 

The  screams  of  crows  may  denote  joy,  fun,  or  mischief. 
The  bleat  of  the  sheep  and  lamb  may  arise  from  petition  for 
aid,  enquiry  as  to  the  place  of  a  missing  mother  or  offspring, 
intimation  of  danger  or  of  accident,  maternal  gratitude  or 
affection  (Watson).  The  grin  of  the  ape  may  indicate  either 
anger  or  fun  (Wallace).  Flight  may  be  the  result  of  defeat, 


LANGUAGE  IN   OTHER  ANIMALS.  295 

cowardice,  unequal  strength  in  combatants,  confession  of 
weakness  or  desire  for  safety,  sense  of  guilt  and  shame,  or 
fear. 

It  is  not  surprising,  then,  that  it  should  frequently  be 
difficult  or  impossible  for  man  to  be  sure  that  his  interpreta- 
tion or  construction  of  the  conduct  or  look  of  this  or  that 
animal  is  the  correct  one ;  and  that  there  should  arise  even 
among  those  who  have  studied  animal  language,  including 
eminent  authors,  irreconcilable  differences  of  opinion  as  to 
the  meaning  to  be  attached  to  given  sounds,  attitudes,  or 
actions. 

A  familiar  instance  or  illustration  of  such  difficulties 
and  differences  is  to  be  found  in  the  case  of  the  beautiful 
peacock,  which  is  so  usually  regarded  as  an  emblem  of 
man's  self-conceit,  self-love,  vanity,  or  pride.  Its  dignified, 
strutting  gait ;  its  slow,  deliberate  movements ;  its  ex- 
panded tail — may  signify  or  arise  from  the  feelings  in 
question.  There  may  be  pride  in  the  possession  of  its 
personal  adornments ;  a  consciousness  of  their  power  to 
fascinate  ;  a  knowledge  of  the  means  of  displaying  them  to 
the  greatest  advantage. 

The  turkey  cock  is  another  unfortunate  bird,  whose 
strut  and  gobble  have  led  it  to  be  considered  an  emblem  of 
human  consequentiality,  as  it  is  so  often  manifested  in  civic 
Bumbledom.  There  is,  however,  as  little  proof  of  the 
existence  of  such  a  feeling  of  self-importance  in  the  turkey 
as  of  personal  vanity  in  the  peacock.  I  do  not  say  that,  in 
either  case,  these  emotions  do  not  exist.  All  that  I  contend 
for  is  that  there  is  nothing  approaching  the  character  of 
proof  or  demonstration  either  for  or  against  the  supposition 
of  their  existence,  and  that  man,  therefore,  may  either  be 
right  or  wrong  in  his  interpretation  of  the  meaning  or 
motive  of  the  strut  of  the  peacock  or  turkey  cock. 

White  regards  the  parade  walk  of  the  Gallinacese  as 
probably  a  mere  peculiarity  of  gait,  having  even  no  sexual 
significance.  The  *  swagger '  of  the  crow  or  daw,  like  the 
strut  of  the  peacock,  may  be  a  mere  habit  of  body,  un- 
associated  with  any  feeling  akin  to  what  we  call  pride  or 
vanity  (White).  In  other  words,  'showing  off'  personal 


296  LANGUAGE   IN   OTHER  ANIMALS. 

attractions  by  the  erection  of  hoods,  the  expansion  of  tails, 
or  other  means  does  not  necessarily  indicate,  as  is  too 
generally  supposed,  self-conceit  or  personal  pride;  nor, 
indeed,  is  such  erection  or  expansion  necessarily  in  man's 
sense  of  the  term  a  '  showing  off.'  Gould  suggests,  on  the 
other  hand,  that  the  shyness  of  male  birds  may  arise  from 
a  consciousness  that  their  beauty  is  a  source  of  danger  to 
themselves.  But  it  has  to  be  proved  that,  as  a  rule,  male 
birds  are  shy,  and  in  proportion  to  their  beauty  ;  while  it  has 
to  be  determined  that  no  other  more  probable  explanation  of 
these  facts,  if  proved,  is  open  to  us. 

Dujardin  and  Lubbock  suggest  other  interpretations  of 
the  facts  observed  and  described  by  Gelien  as  to  bees  than 
those  which  occurred  to  that  naturalist  himself.  Thus  bees 
have  been  described  as  licking  each  other ;  and  this  has  been 
ascribed  to  their  mutual  or  fraternal  affection.  Lubbock 
admits  the  fact  of  the  licking,  but  points  out  that  only  those 
bees  covered  with  honey  are  so  licked  ;  and  hence  his 
inference,  which  is  at  least  legitimate,  if  it  be  not  also  the 
real  explanation  of  the  fact :  '  I  am  satisfied  that  this  is  for 
the  sake  of  the  honey  rather  than  of  the  bee.' 

What  has  been  supposed  to  be  excessive  caution  in  the 
parrot  may  really  be  mere  physical  awkwardness  or  slowness 
of  motion  (White). 

Many  animals  possess  and  exercise  the  same  power  that 
man  has  of  controlling  or  repressing  their  feelings — for 
instance,  of  bodily  pain — when  a  sufficient  motive  for  doing 
so  exists.  This  power  of  self-control — of  stifling  emotion, 
of  inhibiting  or  preventing  all  outward  expression  of  the 
fear  or  other  poignant  feelings  which  nevertheless  exist — 
is  illustrated  in  many  common  feints,  the  object  of  which  is 
to  escape  danger  or  death,  in  many  dogs,  birds,  and  beetles. 
Nor  is  it  always  or  ever  easy,  especially  for  a  novice,  or  for 
any  man  unacquainted  with  the  mental  character  or  physical 
peculiarities  of  a  species — with  the  individuality  of  some  of 
its  members — to  discriminate  between  the  real  or  natural 
and  the  false  or  feigned  expression  even  of  feature. 

For  certain  dogs  at  least  can  assume — as  man  so 
constantly  does — '  company  manners  ' — a  behaviour  in  the 


LANGUAGE  IN   OTHER  ANIMALS.  297 

society  or  presence  of  man,  or  of  particular  men — that  do  not 
represent  their  true  feelings  or  thoughts,  but  are  the  result 
of  conventionality  and  constraint.  It  is  quite  common,  again, 
for  the  guilty  but  quick-witted  dog  to  assume  the  aspect  of 
ignorance  or  innocence,  and  it  may  require  long  and  close 
watching  to  detect — and  only  when  it  believes  itself  un- 
watched  by  man — the  little  signs  by  which  it  betrays  itself 
— the  furtive  look,  the  slinking  gait,  the  avoidance  of  man. 

And  there  are  other  animals  quite  as  capable  as  man  is 
of  assuming,  for  the  purposes  of  deceit,  such  looks  or  mien 
as  will  serve  to  throw  man  himself,  or  their  animal  enemies 
or  prey,  off  their  guard. 

While,  as  a  rule,  and  especially  in  young  animals,  there 
is  an  obvious  outward  demonstration  or  demonstrativeness 
of  feeling  ;  and  while  also  there  are  cases — mostly  in  mature 
and  experienced  animals — in  which  there  is,  for  some  specific 
purpose,  a  successful  repression  of  emotion,  there  are  certain 
other  cases  in  which  there  is  simply,  for  various  reasons,  a 
non-expression  of  wants,  desires,  or  ideas.  Such  animals  do  not 
give  natural  vent  to  their  feelings ;  they  are  not  naturally 
demonstrative  ;  they  are  what  in  man  would  be  called  cold 
and  self-contained,  stolid,  indifferent,  impassive.  This  con- 
dition, however,  when  it  exists,  is  generally  the  fruit  of 
mental  defect  or  disorder ;  in  other  words,  it  is  morbid  in  its 
character. 

Such  animals  find  their  human  analogues  in  many  savage 
races,  and  in  many  individuals  among  civilised  peoples. 

Thus  Wallace  says,  '  In  character  the  Malay  is  impas- 
sive. .  .  .  He  is  not  demonstrative.  His  feelings  of  surprise, 
admiration,  or  fear  are  never  openly  manifested,  and  are 
probably  not  strongly  felt.' 

Among  the  most  interesting  features  of  animal  language 
are  the  fact  that  and  the  means  by  which  such  animals  as  the 
dog  make  themselves  intelligible  to  man — for  instance,  by — 

1.  Attracting  his  attention  to  themselves,  their  young, 
or  other  animals ;  to  things,  persons,  places,  or  events. 

2.  Making  reports  to  him  of  the  occurrence  of  events, 
involving  the  communication  of  information  or  intelligence. 

3.  Issuing  invitations  to  him  to  go  to  a  given  place. 


298  LANGUAGE  IN  OTHER  ANIMALS. 

4.  Preferring  requests  to  him  to  do  some  desired  thing. 

That  all  this  is  frequently  done  is  illustrated  by  the  dog's 
behaviour  when  its  master  is  murdered  or  meets  with  some 
accident.  It  not  only  instantly  communicates  intelligence 
of  the  event  in  the  proper  quarter,  but  it  solicits  immediate 
aid — spares  no  effort  in  obtaining  it,  and  will  take  no  denial. 
It  does  all  this  inter  alia  by  the — 

1.  Anxiety,  earnestness,  or  seriousness,  not  only  of  its 
look,  but  of  its  whole  demeanour. 

2.  Persistency  or  pertinacity  of  its  barking  or  whining, 
as  well  as  its  unusual  character  or  its  occurrence  at  unusual 
times  and  in  unusual  places. 

3.  Unusual  character  of  its  other  voice-sounds,  such  as 
moans. 

4.  Restlessless  or  eccentricity  of  its  movements,  unusual 
excitement,  agitation,  or  action,  including  incessant  and 
wild  leaping  or  running  round  or  about  a  room  or  place, 
or  round  a  person — apparently  without  immediate  aim,  but 
obviously  not  in  or  from  joy. 

5.  Catching    the   dress    of    a  master  or  mistress,  and 
peremptorily  dragging,  pulling,  or  tugging  him  or  her  in  a 
particular  direction  thereby. 

6.  Scampering  off  in  a  fixed  direction  when  it  finds  itself 
likely  to  be  followed  by  those  whose  aid  it  has  solicited. 

7.  Going  in  front  when   it   finds   itself  so   followed — 
leading  or  showing  the  way  to  a  given  locality. 

8.  Looking  behind,  however,  now  and  again,  to  make  sure 
that  it  is  being  duly  followed,  and  by  the  proper  parties. 

9.  Stopping  at  a  given  spot,  and  pointing,  scratching, 
tearing,  or  barking,  as  circumstances  may  require. 

10.  Frequency  of  visits — unaccompanied — to  the  same 
spot. 

By  some  such  means — by  an  intelligent  dog — many 
a  murder  has  been  discovered,  many  a  tipsy  or  wounded 
master  rescued,  many  lost  articles  recovered.  Again,  a  dog 
guarding  a  sleeping  child  summons  the  absent  nurse,  on 
the  infant's  awaking,  by  searching  for  and  discovering  her 
in  some  other  apartment,  pulling  at  her  dress,  and  so  draw- 
ing her  towards  the  nursery — all  just  as  a  child  itself  would 
do  under  similar  circumstances. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

VOCAL    LANGUAGE. 

THE  principal  forms  of  vocal  language  among  the  lower 
animals — the  chief  voice-sounds  by  which  they  exhibit  or 
give  expression  to  their  various  feelings  or  emotions,  ideas 
or  thoughts,  wants  or  wishes — are  the  following : — 

1.  Articulate  speech,  consisting  mainly  of  successful  imi- 
tation of  man's  words  and  phrases — for  instance,  in  the 
parrot,  parroquet,  starling,  jackdaw,  grakle,  raven,  crow,  jay, 
magpie,  and  blackbird. 

This  subject  includes — 

a.  The  distinct  utterance  of  words  and  phrases,  so  as  to 
deceive  man  himself,  as  well  as  certain  other  animals  that 
are  accustomed  to,  and  that  understand,  man's  words  and 
phrases — e.g.  the  dog  and  the  horse. 

b.  The  repetition  of  words  and  sentences,  without  neces- 
sarily knowing  their  meaning — otherwise  mere  mechanical 
repetition — by  rote,  including  recitation,  quotation,    decla- 
mation, and  song-singing. 

c.  The  appropriate  use  of  words  and  sentences,  involving 
the  power  of  composition  and  the  association  of  ideas  with 
words,  including  the  association  of  the  same  kind  of  ideas 
that  man  attaches  to  the  same  kind  of  words  and  phrases. 

Illustrations  are  to  be  found  in  the  form  of — 

1.  Pertinent  remark  or  comment. 

2.  Question  and  reply. 

3.  The  expression  of  physical  wants. 

4.  Salutation  or  address,  including  the  use  of  the 

proper  names  of  persons. 

5.  Giving  orders. 


300  VOCAL  LANGUAGE. 

6.  Correction  of  error. 

7.  Satire. 
3.  Rebuke. 

9.  Use  of  oaths  or  vituperation. 

d.  The  consequent  power  of  conversation  with  man. 

e.  The  acquisition  and  use  of  various  of  the  languages  of 
man,  including,  unfortunately,  slang  and  oaths  in  more  than 
one  European  language. 

2.  Inarticulate  cries  of  different  kinds,  comparable  to  the 
interjectional  exclamations  of  man,  commonest  in  young 
animals  of  the  most  diverse  genera  and  species,  such  as 
the  dog,  elephant,  camel,  seal,  bear,  mule,  ox,  hysena,  red 
squirrel,  hedgehog,  capybara,  gorilla,  siamang,  orang,  chim- 
panzee and  certain  apes  and  monkeys,  swan,  parrot,  wood- 
pecker, waterfowl,  common  fowl,  owl,  rook,  turkey,  swallow, 
and  other  birds. 

This  category  may  be  held  to  include — 

a.  Screams — for  instance,  in  animals  so  different  as  the 
dog,  camel,  elephant,  orang  and  certain  monkeys,  goose, 
flamingo,  fish  hawk,  North  American  kingfisher,  swallow, 
hen  turkey,  crow,  and  other  birds. 

&.  Shrieks — in  the  dog,  some  apes,  and  swallow. 

c.  Yells — in  the  soko,  dog,  and  pig. 

d.  Moans  or  groans,  shouts,  and  many  other  voice-sounds 
that  need  not  here  be  specified. 

The  cries  of  animals  are  of  special  interest  in  at  least  two 
respects,  viz. — 

1.  Their  frequently  /mmcm-childlike  or  infantile  charac- 
ter; and — 

2.  The  fact  that  they  constitute  one  of  the  main  primary 
elements  out  of  which  all  human-spoken  language  has  grown 
or  been  constructed  (Blackie). 

The  war-cry  of  the  gorilla  is  said  to  be  humanlike  in 
its  tone  or  general  character,  resembling  that  of  savage 
man  (Houzeau).  The  bear  whelp  cries  like  a  child  when 
hungry.  The  wail  of  the  motherless  'cat*  (or  babe)  seal 
is  'very  like  that  of  a  human  infant.'  It  is  described  as 
'  crying  piteously '  for  its  slaughtered  mother  (Buckland). 
Mary  Howitt  describes  the  cries  of  a  woodpecker  as  resem- 


VOCAL  LANGUAGE.  301 

bling  those  of  a  child.  Milne  Edwards  points  out  that 
the  cry  of  agony  or  distress  occurs  equally  in  the  child  and 
animal.  The  female  jaco  monkey  cries  when  tired,  just  as 
the  child  does.  The  young  siamang  utters  pettish  cries  and 
offers  resistance  while  being  washed  by  its  mother,  just  as 
the  human  child  does  (Cassell).  Apes  have  cries  and  the 
chimpanzee  shouts  of  pleasure  in  their  amusements. 

Wallace  says  of  a  young  female  orang  that  unsavoury 
food  caused  it  'to  scream  and  to  stamp  with  its  feet,  just  like 
a  child  in  a  passion.  It  was  its  usual  tactic  to  scream  if  it 
thought  itself  neglected  and  wished  to  attract  attention  .... 
gradually  ceasing  to  scream  when  no  notice  was  taken  ;  but 
it  immediately  began  again  if  it  heard  anyone's  footstep.' 
Of  another  orang — a  male — Dr.  Yvan  tells  us  that '  his  master 
having  taken  away  from  him  a  mango  fruit,  he  set  up  a 
peevish  howling,  like  a  vexed  child.  As  this  was  not  suc- 
cessful, he  threw  himself  flat  on  his  belly,  beat  the  ground 
with  his  fist,  screamed,  wept,  and  howled.  .  .  .  When  at 
last  the  fruit  was  given  back  to  him  he  threw  it  at  his 
master's  head.' 

Of  all  the  varied  forms  of  vocal  expression  there  is  none 
of  greater  interest  to  the  student  of  comparative  psychology 
than  that  of  articulate  speech — the  power  of  speaking  or 
talking — possessed  by  such  birds  as  the  parrot. 

That  its  enunciation  of  words  and  phrases  picked  up  by 
imitation  from  man,  either  spontaneously  or  by  means  of  his 
efforts  at  the  bird's  linguistic  education,  is  both  correct  and 
clear  there  can  be  no  doubt.  It  is  proved  by  the  frequency 
with  which  man  allows  himself  to  be  misled  by  the  talk  of 
the  parrot,  fancying  he  is  listening  to  some  fellow-man,  and 
by  the  perhaps  even  greater  frequency  with  which  such 
animals  as  the  dog  and  horse,  accustomed  to  obey  man's 
words  and  sentences  of  command,  commit  the  error  of  obey- 
ing instead  the  waggish,  counterfeit  orders  of  a  parrot.  Of 
the  Truefitt  parrot,  and  its  mimicry  or  imitation  of  the 
manner  of  and  the  words  and  phrases  of  command  used  by  a 
volunteer  drill  sergeant,  a  captain  of  volunteers  asserted 
that  he  had  '  never  heard  a  drill  sergeant  whose  articulation 
was  to  be  compared  with  that  of  the  parrot.'  Nor  is  this 


302  VOCAL  LANGUAGE. 

distinctness  of  utterance  confined  to  the  parrot.  We  are 
told,  for  instance,  of  a  jackdaw,  at  one  of  the  Crystal  Palace 
bird  shows  in  1875,  that  it  could  speak  '141  words  as  plain 
as  any  human  being '  ('  Animal  World ').  These  correct 
repetitions  of  man's  words,  when  combined  in  sentences, 
sometimes  of  considerable  length,  include — 
t.  The  recitation  of — 

a.  Quotations  from  Shakespeare  or  other  dramatists  or 
poets. 

b.  Creeds  or  portions  of  Church  services. 

2.  The  giving  of  orders  or  commands. 

3.  The  use  of  oaths  in  vituperation. 

The  parrot  may  do  all  this  and  a  great  deal  more  without 
necessarily  knowing  the  meaning  of  what  it  says — it  may 
associate  no  ideas  with  the  words  or  verbal  sounds  to  which 
it  gives  such  glib  utterance. 

It  is  too  common  an  error  of  man's,  however,  to  regard 
the  parrot  as  learning  to  articulate  or  utter  and  to  repeat 
words  only  by  rote,  without  attaching  any  ideas  to  them — as 
school  children,  in  point  of  fact,  so  much  more  frequently 
do.  It  is  a  libel  on  the  intelligence  of  the  parrot  to  talk  of 
such  school  children  repeating  their  catechism,  for  instance, 
*  like  a  parrot/  as  synonymous  with  '  by  rote.' 

That  in  children  such  an  effort  is  mainly  mechanical  is 
more  than  probable.  No  doubt  the  same  may  be  the  case  in 
some  parrots,  but  it  is  certainly  not  true  of  all,  and  probably 
not  of  many  of  them.  Abundant  evidence  has  been  adduced 
to  show  that  many  so-called  talking  parrots  (which  are 
generally  the  common  grey  parrot,  the  most  intelligent, 
though  not  the  most  showy,  of  its  race)  attach  man's  ideas 
to  man's  words — learn  their  meaning,  apply  them  properly, 
not  singly  only,  but  in  various  combinations — in  other 
words,  speak  sense  and  talk  to  the  purpose. 

Endless  stories  have  been  told  me,  orally  and  by  eye- 
witnesses, of  the  pertinence  of  remark  involved  in  the  talking 
feats  of  favourite  parrots — remarks  of  such  a  kind  as  some- 
times shamed,  sometimes  astonished,  their  too  indulgent 
and  too  careless  masters  or  mistresses.  And  I  have  met  with 
many  incidents  of  a  similar  kind  recorded  in  print.  One  or 


VOCAL  LANGUAGE.  303 

two  illustrative  parrot  biographies  are  all,  however,  that  need 
here  be  referred  to. 

One  of  the  best  and  most  recent  narratives — showing  the 
wonderful  power  of  appropriate  remark  in  the  grey  parrot — 
was  given  in  '  Chambers's  Journal'  in  1874,  the  animal 
described  belonging  to  a  well-known  photographer  (Truefitt) 
in  that  beautiful  promenade  of  Edinburgh — Princes  Street. 
The  bird  was  'interviewed'  by  a  clergyman  specially  in  order 
to  the  publication  of  the  results  of  his  enquiry.  To  satisfy 
myself  of  the  perfect  accuracy  of  the  description  given  by 
the  journalist,  of  the  authenticity  of  all  the  facts  narrated, 
I  visited  the  parrot  in  the  summer  of  1875.  It  was  then  at 
summer  quarters  with  its  master  at  Cramond,  near  Edin- 
burgh. In  addition  to  witnessing — at  great  disadvantage, 
however — many  of  the  animal's  speaking  performances,  I 
had  full  conversations  with  both  its  master  and  mistress  ; 
and  the  result  is  that  I  can  substantially  confirm  the  state- 
ments of  the  reverend  essayist  who  first  brought  its  re- 
markable linguistic  attainments  under  public  notice. 

Of  this  Truefitt  parrot  the  following  anecdotes  are  told : 
— Roused  from  sleep  by  the  one  o'clock  time-gun  fired  from 
Edinburgh  Castle,  he  would  exclaim,  *  One  o'clock!  one 
o'clock  !  Polly  wants  his  dinner,  Jeanie !  '  addressing  the 
housemaid.  *  Lay  the  cloth ' — the  tablecloth — repeating  this 
cry  till  the  cloth  was  laid  and  the  dinner  duly  set  out.  He 
would  originate,  interrupt,  and  take  part  in  man's  conversa- 
tion, some  of  his  observations  being  'quiet,  grave,  solemn,  but 
intensely  satirical,'  throwing  in  now  and  then  a  little  French 
or  slang.  He  administered  rebuke  in  very  sharp  tones, 
that  could  not  be  misunderstood.  He  invited  himself  to  sing ; 
then,  '  coughing  like  a  nervous  young  lady  about  to  entertain 
a  party,'  he  sang  verse  after  verse  of  different  songs,  each  to 
its  appropriate  tune,  making  himself  the  hero  by  ingeniously 
substituting  in  the  proper  places  his  own  name.  He  called 
his  master,  but  ordered  the  servant,  obviously  recognising 
the  difference  in  social  status,  made  enquiries  and  uttered 
exclamations,  cajoled,  scolded,  and  hurrahed,  all  in  such  a 
way  as  to  lead  his  interviewer  to  remark,  '  What  surprised 
me  most  was  the  appropriateness  of  the  bird's  words  to  the 
21 


304  VOCAL  LANGUAGE. 

circumstances.'  And  after  any  of  his  exhibitions  he  indulged 
in  self-gratulation,  *  as  if  aware  that  he  had  shown  himself 
off  to  some  advantage.' 

Again,  the  parroquet  whose  talents  are  so  lovingly  and 
admiringly  described  by  Lady  Clementina  Davies  made 
sensible,  well-timed  comments — for  instance,  on  its  food. 
Not  only  did  it  possess  the  gift  of  speech,  but  it  had  the 
additional  accomplishment  of  knowing  more  than  one  spoken 
language  of  man.  It  swore  when  enraged,  and  it  could 
venture  to  abuse  both  in  French  and  English  those  who 
affronted  it. 

And,  what  is  even  more  interesting  and  less  objectionable, 
after  recovering  from  an  illness  its  talk  became  excited  and 
incoherent — a  circumstance  having  a  most  important  bearing 
on  delusion,  delirium,  and  mania  in  the  lower  animals. 
Pierquin  long  ago  pointed  out  a  correlative  fact — that  not 
only  do  certain  birds  acquire  a  certain  power  or  knowledge 
of  human  language,  but  that  the  loss  of  such  acquired 
language  accompanies  disuse  or  want  of  practice,  as  well 
as  bodily  or  mental  disorder,  just  as  in  man. 

A  knowledge  of  foreign  languages,  though  commonest  in, 
is  not  restricted  to,  the  parrot;  for  a  Senegal  jackdaw,  at  one 
of  the  Crystal  Pajace  bird  shows  in  1875,  'not  only  spoke 
English  but  French  too  '  (« Animal  World  '). 

Professor  Low  describes  a  parrot  belonging  to  a  hostelry 
as  calling  for  the  waiter  or  hostler,  according  to  the  cha- 
racter of  the  arrivals  at  the  inn — on  foot  or  on  horseback, 
in  carriages  or  in  carts. 

The  parrot,  unfortunately,  does  not  always  display  its 
power  of  speech  for  good  purposes,  for  among  the  ends 
which  this  accomplishment  is  occasionally  made  to  subserve 
are  mendacity,  deception,  jeering,  swearing,  mischief,  and 
practical  joking  (Jesse).  It  picks  up  man's  oaths  with  as 
great  readiness  as  his  pious  ejaculations,  and  uses  them 
with  all  man's  emphasis  and  theatrical  effect. 

Starlings  and  ravens  have  also  been  described  as  using 
man's  words  with  a  consciousness  of  their  purport,  and  this 
even  without  man's  teaching — by  spontaneous  imitation, 
observation,  reflection  (Biichner). 


VOCAL  LANGUAGE.  305 

But  speech,  like  song,  is  more  frequently  the  result  of 
tuition  by  man  and  of  incessant  practice  in  lesson-learning. 

According  to  Houzeau,  however,  articulate  sounds  are  not 
confined  to  the  Psittacidce  or  to  birds,  but  occur  in  certain 
other  animals — for  instance,  in  the  siamang  and  the  gorilla. 

Certain  'learned'  dogs  have  been  taught  a  kind  of  speech 
(Leibnitz) — to  use  certain  words  so  as  to  express  certain 
wants  (Watson),  so  as  at  least  to  be  able  to  order  or  call  for 
certain  articles.  But  this  sort  of  speaking,  when  it  does  not 
consist  of  mere  differentiated  tones  of  the  bark,  falls  very 
far  short  of  the  true  speech  of  the  parrot,  both  as  regards 
the  distinctness  of  the  utterance  and  the  knowledge  of  the 
meaning  of  words  and  their  appropriate  applications. 

Certain  other  learned  dogs,  while  they  cannot  in  any 
way  speak  or  utter  words,  can  yet  compose  words,  possess- 
ing as  they  do  a  certain  knowledge  of  man's  alphabet  and  of 
the  practice,  if  not  some  of  the  principles,  of  applying  it  in 
composition  (Watson).  They  recognise  certain  at  least  of 
his  printed  letters  and  words,  and  they  can  select  and 
arrange  the  former  so  as  to  constitute  the  latter — that  is  to 
say,  to  a  certain  limited  extent  they  can  compose  words. 

It  is,  then,  quite  legitimate  to  speak  of  the  loquacity, 
garrulity,  prattle,  or  talk  of  certain  parrots,  and  probably 
also  of  certain  other  birds,  such  as  the  starling,  raven,  and 
jackdaw.  In  other  cases,  however,  what  is  called  speech  in 
birds  may  be  mere  sounds,  resembling,  or  supposed  to  re- 
semble, man's  words  or  phrases;  what  is  magniloquently 
described  by  itinerant  showmen  as  talking  in  fish — which 
are  really  seals — is  merely  the  emission  of  a  kind  of  cry, 
resembling  some  such  word  or  sound  as  *  Ma-ma.' 

There  is,  for  instance,  a  so-called  'speaking  bird'  in 
Guiana  (Waterton),  and  the  'talking  crow'  of  Jamaica  (Wat- 
son), with  the  exact  nature  of  whose  speech  I  am  unac- 
quainted. The  forms  of  indistinct  utterance  that  constitute 
spurious  speech  include  the  chatter,  jabber,  or  palaver  of 
monkeys  and  apes,  of  sparrows  and  swallows,  of  the  merlo 
and  goose,  of  the  hyaena  and  peccary,  and  much,  no  doubt, 
of  the  so-called  talk  even  of  the  starling. 

Those  who  have  studied  bird  song  have  pointed  out  the 


306  VOCAL  LANGUAGE. 

interesting  fact  that  the  song  of  the  nightingale  and  of  other 
singing  birds  is  capable  of  reduction  to  and  interpretation 
by  words.  It  may  be  translated  into  man's  written  words, 
and  it  is  therefore  in  a  sense  quite  proper  to  speak  of  the 
articulation  of  bird  song. 

Not  a  few  authors  have  directed  attention  to  the  fact 
that  many  of  the  modes  of  expression  employed  by  the  lower 
animals  are  to  be  regarded  as  the  equivalents  of  speech  in 
man.  Thus  in  this  sense  certain  animals  have  been  said, 
with  perfect  propriety,  to  possess  watchwords — that  is,  sounds 
or  signs  that  are  analogous  in  their  uses  to  watchwords. 
Others  are  said  to  speaJc  to  or  converse  with  each  other — to 
tell  or  ask  news,  to  address  or  harangue  assemblies,  to  call 
one  another  or  man. 

Barking  in  the  dog  is  the  physiological  equivalent  of 
speech  in  man,  according  to  Ferrier.  Sparrows  and  other 
birds  may  be  said  to  tell  each  other,  for  instance,  where 
food-supply  is  forthcoming.  They  communicate  information 
— facts—  to  each  other  quite  as  effectually  as  if  they  had 
done  so  by  words  or  sentences.  The  dog  can  tell  itself,  in  its 
own  way,  whether  its  master  is  in  good  or  bad  humour. 

Certain  observations  of  Gelien  on  bees  led  him  to  con- 
clude that  in  each  hive  they  have  some  common  sign,  of 
which  he  speaks  as  a  pass-word.  And  this  conclusion  seems 
to  have  been  adopted  by  subsequent  writers,  such  as  Bur- 
meister,  who  says  that  the  use  of  such  a  sign  or  word 
'serves  to  prevent  any  strange  bee  from  intruding  into  the 
hive  without  being  immediately  detected  and  killed '  (Lub- 
bock).  Amatory  converse  may  be  very  real,  though  not 
necessarily  by  sounds  at  all.  Palpation  by  the  antennae  in 
the  ant  takes  the  place  of  man's  speech  and  writing  or 
printing.  The  dog  may  truly  be  said  to  possess  f  speaking 
eyes '  (Cobbe),  or  to  speak  with  its  eyes.  During  the  siege  of 
Paris  by  the  Prussians  in  1870-1  the  street  dogs  are  said  to 
have  held  deliberative  assemblies,  in  which  they  spoke  by  their 
looks  or  features  and  tails,  as  well  as  by  their  throats, 
mouths  and  lips  (barks  and  mutterings).  Messengers  ap- 
peared to  bring  news,  and  the  assembly  made,  comments 
thereon  (Gautier). 


CHAPTEE    XIY. 

NON-VOCAL     LANGUAGE. 

THE  principal  forms  of  non- vocal  language — the  chief  modes 
of  expression  of  thought  or  feeling,  other  than  those  which 
consist  in  the  emission  of  sounds  of  various  kinds — are  the 
following : — 

1.  Actions — movement  or  motion — including  gesture  and 
gesticulation,  attitude  and  posture,  gait,  carriage,  mien, 
manner,  deportment  or  demeanour,  conduct  or  behaviour. 

a.  General,  involving  the  whole  or  greater  part  of  the 
body :  e.g.— 

1 .  Capers  or  antics,  gambols,  frolic,  frisking. 

E.g.  in  young  animals  generally,  such  as  the 
lamb,  puppy,  and  kitten ;  but  also  in  many 
adult  birds  in  the  season  of  love ;  in  the 
adult  rabbit  and  dog,  ape  and  chimpanzee. 

2.  Skipping,  leaping  or  jumping,  bounding,  scamper- 

ing, racing  or  running,  coursing,  charging  or 
careering. 

E.g.  in  the  dog,  horse,  and  cattle. 

3.  Dancing,  hopping,  prancing,  plunging,  flinging, 

rearing. 

E.g.  in  the  horse,  hare,  mongoose,  certain 
monkeys,  dog,  and  goat. 

4.  Prostration,     crouching,     grovelling,    cowering, 

crawling,  cringing,  fawning. 

E.g.  in  the  dog,  cat,  and  mouse. 

5.  Self-concealment   or     hiding,     flight, 

skulking,  slinking,  shirking,  or  shrinking. 
E.g.  in  the  dog,  cat,  and  orang. 


308  NON-VOCAL  LANGUAGE. 

6.  Writhing  or  wriggling. 

E.g.  from  pain. 

7.  Rubbing  body  against  the  bodies  of  other  animals 

or  against  hard  inert  substances. 

E.g.  in  the.  elephant,  horse,  dog,  cat,  cattle, 
sheep,  ape,  and  parrot. 

8.  Strutting,  including  swaggering. 

E.g.  in  the  turkey  and  peacock,  Cupid  and 
Argus  pheasants,  and  gander. 

9.  Immobility,  from  refusal  or  inability  to  move. 

E.g.  in  the  horse  and  ass. 

10.  Gyration — whirling  round  and  round  in  a  circle. 

E.g.  in  the  dog  and  horse. 

11.  Tumbling,  revolution,  rolling  over  and    over   in 

the  air  or  on  the  ground. 

E.g.  in  certain  pigeons  (such  as  the  tumbler), 
certain  dogs,  and  the  orang. 

12.  Salaaming  and  bowing. 

E.g.  in  elephants  and  certain  monkeys. 

13.  General  restlessness,  muscular  and  nervous. 

b.  Special — of  particular  parts  or  members  of  the  body. 

1.  Mouth,  lips,  teeth,  and  tongue,  beaks  or  bills. 

a.  Biting,  including  worrying,  tearing,  gnaw- 

ing, gnashing. 

E.g.  in  the  dog,  horse,  camel,  guanaco, 
monkey,  ass,  suricate,  and  Magellan 
fox. 

b.  Snapping. 

E.g.  in  the  dog,  horse,  wolf,  dove,  and 
other  birds. 

c.  Spitting. 

E.g.  in  the  camel,  vicuna,  guanaco,  cat, 
certain  monkeys,  and  scorpions. 

d.  Licking. 

E.g.  in  the  dog,  cat,  wolf,  pig,  rabbit, 
Guinea-pig,  and  certain  bees. 

e.  Pouting. 

E.g.  in  certain  apes  and  monkeys. 

2.  Legs  and  arms,  paws,  heels,  hoofs,  claws. 


NON-VOCAL  LANGUAGE.  309 

a.  Touching  or  tapping — 

1.  With  paws. 
E.g.  in  the  cat. 

2.  With  antennae  or  pincers. 

E.g.  in  ants,  common  and  white. 
&.  Embrace,  caress,  fondling,  hugging. 

E.g.  in  the  siamang,  orang,  lori,  certain 
apes,  dog,  and  elephant. 

c.  Striking  blows,  beating,  pushing,  jogging. 

E.g.  in  the  horse,  orang,  capybara. 

d.  Scratching. 

E.g.  in  the  cat  and  dog. 

e.  Kicking  and  pawing. 

E.g.  in  the  horse  and  ass. 
/.  Band-wringing,  squeezing,  or  shaking. 

E.g.  in  the  lori,  certain  monkeys,  and 

anthropoid  apes.  , 

8.  Head  and  its  appendages,  including  horns. 
a.  Butting  and  goring. 

E.g.  in  cattle,  deer,  sheep,  goats,  capy- 

bara. 
&.  Head-  shaking,  tossing,  rubbing. 

E.g.  in  certain  apes,  bull,  horse,  dog, 
and  cat. 

4.  Nose  and  nostrils. 

a.  Sniffing. 

E.g.  in  the  dog,  horse,  and  various  other 
Ruminants. 

b.  Nose-rubbing. 

E.g.  in  the  horse. 

5.  Ear  movements,  including  erection,  depression, 

and  retraction. 

E.g.  in  the  dog  and  horse. 

6.  Wing  movements,  including  expansion,  napping, 

and  fluttering. 

E.g.  in  birds. 

7.  Tail  movements,  including    erection,  expansion, 

vibration  (wagging  and  lashing). 

E.g.  in  the  wolf,  goat,  ram,  stag,  lion, 


310  NON-VOCAL  LANGUAGE. 

dog,  cat,  horse,  ox,  and  other  Ru- 
minants ;  sparrows  and  various  other 
birds. 

2.  Erection,  inflation,  expansion,  or  elevation,  with  their 
opposite  condition  of  depression,  of  various  dermal  appendages, 
including  especially — 

a.  Hair,  bristles,  and  quills. 

E.g.  in  the  lion,  hog  or  boar,  dog  and  cat, 
certain  caterpillars,  porcupine,  and  hedge- 
hog. 

b.  Feathers,  including  ruffs. 

E.g.  in  ruffling  or  other  displays  of  plumage 
in  birds. 

c.  Spurs,  combs,  wattles,  crests,  hoods,  frills  of  the 

head,  neck,  or  throat. 

E.g.  in  the  cockatoo,  frill  lizard,  bladdernose 
seal,  rook. 

d.  Head,   neck,  throat,   or  breast  puffing,  swelling 

dilatation,  or  distension. 

E.g.  in  certain  serpents  and  lizards,  such  as 
the  Egyptian  cobra  and  the  anobis,  the 
pouter  and  other  pigeons. 

3.  Coloration  and  decoloration  of  the  skin   of  the  face 
or  throat,   or  their   appendages — such  as   wattles,  combs, 
feathers,  bristles,  or  hair — including — 

a.  Hyperc&mia — increase  of  blood-colour  by  con- 
gestion or  determination  of  blood,  leading  to 
flushing,  blushing,  and  reddening. 

E.g.  in  the  mandrill  and  other  baboons,  dog, 

turkey  cock  (wattle). 

fe.  Ancemia — decrease  of  blood-colour  from  sudden 
local  removal  of  blood-supply,  leading  to  pallor 
or  colour-loss. 

E.g.  in  the  stickleback, 
c.  Other  colour-change. 

E.g.  in  the  chameleon,  anobis,  and  other 
lizards. 

4.  Cutaneous   or    other  exudations,  such    as    sweat,  in- 
cluding the  emission  of  coloured  fluid*. 


NON- VOCAL  LANGUAGE.  311 

5.  Emission  of  smells  or   odours,    mostly   pungent    and 
disagreeable. 

6.  Emission    of    light,    including    so-called    *  phospho- 
rescence.' 

E.g.  in  the  glowworm. 

7.  Physiognomy — facial  expression,  the  play  of  feature, 
peculiarities  of  countenance — including  especially  the  look, 
stare,  or  gaze  of  the  eye,  constituting  what  has  been  called 
eye  language  ;  and  also  including — 

a.  Grimace. 

E.g.  in  apes  and  baboons. 

b.  Vacancy  of  feature,  usually  indicative  of  disease. 
Of  all  the  non-vocal  forms  of  animal  language  the  most 

important  to  the  student  of  comparative  psychology  is  pro- 
bably the  last.  But  there  are  great  difficulties  in  the  study 
of  feature-changes  in  the  lower  animals,  and  in  their  com- 
parison with  those  occurring  in  man,  the  principal  being  the 
fact  that  the  face  in  other  animals  is  so  frequently  covered 
with  hair,  feathers,  or  other  cutaneous  adjuncts  or  ap- 
pendages, that  prevent  our  seeing  the  play  of  the  facial 
muscles.  The  physiognomy  of  the  lower  animals  can,  there- 
fore, be  best  or  only  studied  in  those  that  are  bare-faced, 
the  number  of  whom  is  extremely  limited.  There  are,  how- 
ever, a  few  literally  or  comparatively  bare-faced  monkeys, 
apes,  or  baboons — such  as  the  mandrill — dogs,  and  other 
animals,  in  which  even  the  phenomenon  of  blushing,  or 
flushing  of  the  skin,  and  its  converse  can  be  observed. 

Two  points  are  especially  noteworthy  in  our  consideration 
of  facial  expression  in  the  lower  animals — 

1.  Its  eloquence — the  number  of  mental  states  of  which  it 
is  the  correlative — and — 

2.  Its  wonderful  variety  or  variability,  not  only  in  different 
genera  and  species,  or  in  different  individuals  of  the  same 
species,  but  even  in  the  same  individual  at  different  times 
or  under  different  circumstances. 

In  the  dog  and  horse  especially  the  whole  phenomena  of 
feature-change — of  the  varying  states  of  the  countenance — 
in  particular  of  the  look  and  eye — as  the  signs  of  feeling 
may  be  studied  with  equal  advantage  and  interest.  The 


312  NON-VOCAL  LANGUAGE. 

physiognomy  of  the  dog  and  certain  of  the  Quadrumana  in 
many  respects  resembles  that  of  man.  The  beggar's  dog 
returns  thanks  partly  at  least  by  its  look  (Murray).  It  has 
looks  of  enquiry  as  to  the  meaning  of  unfamiliar  ceremonies 
or  events,  as  to  the  nature  or  character  of  unknown  things 
or  persons.  It  throws  pathos  or  plaintiveness  into  its  look 
as  much  as  into  its  howl.  It  has  an  abashed  or  apologetic 
look  when,  knowing  it  to  be  a  fault,  it  soils  a  drawing-room 
carpet  with  its  muddy  feet  (Houzeau).  Its  look — as  well  as 
the  movements  of  the  head  or  tail,  or  body  as  a  whole,  in- 
cluding its  gait — convey  the  expression  of  pride  or  exultation 
at  success,  business  importance,  and  many  other  feelings  or 
mental  states  (Watson).  Its  look  of  friendly  recognition  is 
frequently  equivalent  to  man's  bow  or  nod  to  fellow-man. 
Houzeau  speaks  of  its  look  of  interrogation  in  difficulty  and 
of  the  expressiveness  of  its  mere  glance.  Dogs 

Woo  kind  words  by  look, 

says  Southey. 

Darwin  refers  to  sporting  dogs  looking  or  waiting  for 
further  instructions  from  their  masters  when  in  doubt.  A 
dog's  look  of  shame  when  caught  in  a  fault  is  notorious 
('  Animal  World').  The  eloquence  both  of  its  look  and  mien 
has  been  pointed  out  by  Grenville  Murray,  who  also  de- 
scribes its  wistful,  sad,  or  sorrowful  looks  and  longings — 
its  looks  of  gentleness,  timidity,  gratitude,  eagerness  of 
desire  to  please,  or  happiness. 

The  physiognomy  of  the  lower  animals — facial  and 
general — has  successfully  engaged  the  talents  of  many  gifted 
artists,  such  as  the  -late  Sir  Edwin  Landseer,  and  the  living 
Rosa  Bonheur,  Joseph  Wolf,  and  Harrison  Weir ;  and  it  is 
one  of  the  best  possible  proofs,  on  the  one  hand,  of  the  reality 
of  the  close  connection  between  mental  states  and  facial  or 
other  forms  of  expression  in  other  animals  as  in  man,  and, 
on  the  other,  of  the  fidelity  to  nature  of  the  painter's  art, 
that  he  can  depict  on  canvas  the  mental  character  of  such 
animals  as  the  dog,  horse,  ass,  or  monkey,  which  may  some- 
times be  said  in  a  sense  to  'speak'  from  the  painter's  canvas. 
The  attention  of  artists,  however,  has  been  attracted  to  what 


NON-VOCAL  LANGUAGE.  313 

may  be  fitly  called  the  physiognomy  of  health ;  but  another 
chapter  shows  that  there  exists  among  the  lower  animals, 
as  in  man,  a.  less  familiar,  but  not  less  eloquent  or  important, 
physiognomy  of  disease. 

Unfortunately  some  of  the  lower  animals  have  imitated 
from  man  certain  of  his  most  objectionable  modes  of  ex- 
pression— intimating  their  derision,  for  instance,  as  the 
masked  callithrix  (monkey)  does,  by  putting  its  thumb  to 
its  nose  (Cassell). 

One  of  the  most  interesting  forms  of  non-vocal  language 
is  that  of  touchy  especially  as  it  occurs  among  ants.  By 
strokes  of  their  antennae  they  intimate  the  presence  of  booty 
or  of  palatable  food,  point  out  suitable  prey  and  the  best 
places  for  foraging.  Their  antennae  give  them  the  means  of 
intercommunication  of  ideas — of  holding  conversation  with 
each  other — of  sending  requests  for  aid  (Houzeau,  Watson, 
Smith).  This  exchange  of  thought  or  feeling  includes  the 
conveyance  of  intelligence  or  news — for  instance,  of  dis- 
coveries. One  animal  can  show  the  way  to  others.  Mutual 
greetings  and  recognition  take  place  after  long  separation 
(Franklin,  Kirby  and  Spence).  By  such  means  they  issue 
orders  and  invitations,  and  give  advice  (Figuier).  Commu- 
nication of  ideas  by  means  of  antennae,  or  analogous  organs, 
occurs  also  among  bees,  and  probably  many  other  insects. 
The  soldiers  of  the  white  ants  signal  to  the  workers  by 
strokes  of  their  pincers  (Figuier).  Thus  we  see  that  an- 
nouncements of  all  kinds  are  not  necessarily  vocal. 

Another  of  the  most  interesting  forms  of  non-vocal 
language  is  the  use  made  by  certain  *  learned '  animals  of 
man's  alphabet — of  letters — in  the  construction  of  words. 
Thus  we  are  told  that  the  performing  dog  Minos,  '  by  means 
of  a  double  alphabet  of  separate  letters,  writes  or  constructs 
words.' 


CHAPTER    XV. 

LAUGHTER   AND   WEEPING. 

THEBE  are  certain  modes  of  expression  of  the  feelings  that 
deserve  special  consideration  from  their  having  hitherto 
been  generally  considered  essentially  or  peculiarly  human — 
as  confined  exclusively  to  man.  Of  these  the  most  interest- 
ing and  important  is  laughter. 

But,  in  the  first  place,  as  regards  man  himself,  it  is  not 
generally  borne  in  mind  that  there  are  whole  races  who  do 
not  laugh,  and  that  in  those  who  do  laughter  is  not  neces- 
sarily or  always  associated  with,  nor  does  it  proceed  from, 
a  perception  of  the  absurd  or  ridiculous.  The  American 
Indians  and  the  Cingalese  Veddas  are  illustrations  of  races 
that  do  not  laugh.  And  we  know,  on  the  other  hand,  as 
well  as  the  poet,  that  there  is  the  laugh 

That  speaks  the  vacant  mind — 

that  means  nothing,  that  is  utterly  inane  and  apparently 
causeless — that  characterises  the  human  idiot,  lunatic,  or 
fool. 

As  regards  the  lower  animals,  it  can  be  shown  that 
certain  of  them  possess,  on  the  one  hand — 

1.  The   facial,   vocal,   or    other  muscles,   including   the 
diaphragm,  that  are  concerned  in  the  physical  phenomenon 
of  laughter  in  man  ;  and,  on  the  other — 

2.  The  emotions  or  ideas  which   in   man   give    rise   to 
laughter. 

It  is  obvious  that  if  it  could  be  shown  that  the  lower 
animals  are  devoid  of  the  muscles  whose  action  creates  the 
expression  or  phenomenon  of  laughter,  what  has  been  called 


LAUGHTER  AND  WEEPING.  315 

laughter  in  them  would  have  to  be  relegated  to  some  other 
category  than  human  laughter.  In  studying  this  subject  of 
the  physical  manifestations  in  other  animals  comparable  to 
laughter  in  man,  I  applied  in  the  first  place  to  two  expe- 
rienced comparative  anatomists,  enquiring  whether  and  how 
far  the  lower  animals,  or  certain  of  them,  possess  the  various 
muscles  concerned  in  laughter — that  is,  physical  apparatus 
for  its  exhibition. 

These  authorities  were  Professor  Macalister,  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Dublin,  and  Professor  Morrison  Watson,  of  the 
Owens  College,  Manchester.  The  replies  received  from 
both  left  me  in  no  doubt  that  various  animals  do  possess 
such  muscular  apparatus,  and  that,  so  far  a,s  it  is  concerned, 
there  is  no  reason  why  certain  of  them  should  not  laugh  as 
well  as  smile,  grin,  or  grimace.  Macalister,  for  instance, 
demonstrates  the  presence  of  the  facial  muscles  of  laughter 
in  the  gorilla,  while  Darwin  had  previously  pointed  out 
that  various  monkeys  possess  the  same  facial  muscles  which 
in  man  are  engaged  in  laughter.  It  is  well  known  that  all 
the  Mammalia,  in  common  with  man,  have  a  diaphragm 
capable  of  rapid  alternations  of  contraction  and  relaxation,  as 
well  as  of  spasmodic  or  convulsive  action. 

In  other  animals,  as  in  man,  the  physical  phenomena  of 
laughter  include — 

1.  Certain  changes  in  facial  expression. 

2.  Certain  voice  or  other  sounds ;  and — 

3.  Certain   convulsive  or  other  movements  of  the  chest 
or  other  parts  of  the  body. 

Changes  in  facial  expression,  of  a  kind  comparable  with 
those  that  occur  and  are  characteristic  of  laughter,  are  met 
with  also — in  smiles,  grins,  and  grimaces — in  certain  ani- 
mals. Some  monkeys  and  apes — such  as  the  chimpanzee — 
smile  (Darwin,  Pierquin).  The  smile  of  the  titi  is  described 
as  a  'playful'  one  (Cassell).  Smiling  in  the  dog  has  been 
represented  as  occurring  from  the  very  different  feelings  of 
hypocrisy  and  ggod-nature.  Grins  and  grimaces,  again,  are 
common  among  monkeys  and  apes,  but  are  described  also 
as  occurring  in  the  dog  under  the  influence  of  pleasure  or 
affection  (Darwin).  That  'broad  grin'  which  is  usually 


316  LATJGHTEE  AND  WEEPING. 

associated  with,  or  arises  from,  a  sense  of  fun  is  developed 
in  the  orang,  according  to  Romanes,  who  also  speaks  of 
grinning  in  a  Skye  terrier  of  his  own  as  'intended  to  imitate 
laughter.'  It  was  the  result  of  '  evident  purpose  ; '  the  dog 
'wished  to  be  particularly  agreeable,'  and  he  imitated  man's 
laughter  even  to  'shaking  his  sides  in  a  convulsive  manner.' 

The  soko  too  grins  (Livingstone) ;  and  so  does  the  orang, 
which  smiles  also  when  tickled  (Darwin  and  Watson). 

Among  voice-sounds  comparable  with  laughter — arising 
from  the  same  kind  of  feelings  or  ideas  —  are  chuckling, 
giggling,  and  tittering,  which  have  been  described  as  occur- 
ring in  certain  animals.  Thus  chuckling,  as  a  prelude  to 
laughter,  is  producible  in  the  chimpanzee  by  the  action  of 
tickling  (Darwin).  The  parrot  chuckles  at  the  success  of 
its  own  practical  jokes  (Darwin).  Chuckling  occurs  also  in 
certain  monkeys.  The  soko  giggles  (Livingstone).  Tittering 
occurs  among  monkeys  when  they  are  pleased  (Darwin). 

Various  animals  imitate,  and  successfully,  man's  laughter 
— that  is,  its  outward  expression.  The  parrot,  for  instance, 
can  be  taught  to  imitate  its  master's  laughter,  just  as  it 
learns  to  speak  his  verbal  language  and  to  pipe  or  whistle 
his  tunes  (Darwin).  But  the  same  animal  is  capable  also  of 
hearty  and  spontaneous  laughter — of  fits  or  peals  of  laughter. 
It  laughs  at  its  own  mistakes  or  mischief  (Watson)  Sir 
Wyville  Thomson  describes  the  '  loud,  mocking  laugh'  of  a 
Brazilian  one  at  the  success  of  a  practical  joke  of  its  own. 
A  writer  in  '  Chambers's  Journal '  describes  a  well-known 
Edinburgh  parrot  as  '  a  capital  laugher,'  and  as  laughing 
'  heartily.'  White  speaks  of  heartiness  of  laughter  in  the 
woodpecker.  A  pet  magpie  of  Jesse's  had  a  laugh  that  was 
'  so  hearty,  joyous,  and  natural,  that  no  one  who  heard  it 
could  help  joining  in  it.'  Wood  tells  us  that  certain 
swallows,  on  the  successful  issue  of  a  practical  joke  played 
by  them  on  a  cat,  seemed  each  '  to  set  up  a  laugh  at  the 
disappointed  enemy,  very  like  the  laugh  of  a  young  child 
when  tickled.'  • 

Laughter  has  been  frequently  described  as  occurring 
in  the  Quadrumana — including  the  orang  and  chimpanzee 
— when  tickled  (Darwin,  Watson,  Le  Cat,  Grant),  and 


LAUGHTER  AND  WEEPING.  317 

certain  monkeys  and  apes  when  pleased  (Buckland,  Dar- 
win, Pierquin).  The  laughter  of  certain  apes  is  said  to 
be  analogous  to  man's  own,  in  that  it  is  noisy  and  ex- 
pansive or  hilarious.  So  close  indeed  is  the  resemblance 
or  analogy  that  the  grave  Turks  compare  laughing  Western 
Europeans  to  apes  (Houzeau).  A  chimpanzee  at  the  London 
Zoological  Gardens  can  be  made  by  his  keeper  to  laugh 
when  pleased  or  caressed  ('  Graphic ') . 

It  is  obvious  that  in  such  cases  laughter  proceeds  from, 
or  is  the  expression  of,  a  considerable  variety  of  feelings, 
bodily  as  well  as  mental,  for  tickling  seems  as  capable  of 
producing  certain  kinds  or  equivalents  of  laughter  in  other 
animals  as  in  man ;  while  among  mental  states  productive 
of  it  are  to  be  mentioned — 

1.  A  sense  of  fun  or  humour. 

2.  Perception  of  the  absurd,  ridiculous,  ludicrous,  odd,  or 
droll. 

3.  Pleasure  or  satisfaction. 

4.  Exultation. 

5.  Derision. 

6.  Joy,  especially  when  sudden  and  excessive. 

It  must  here  be  remembered  that  laughter,  though 
usually  in  man  an  expression  of  pleasure  or  of  pleasurable 
emotions,  is  not  so  always  or  necessarily.  When  it  is  pro- 
duced, for  instance,  by  tickling,  it  is  a  purely  reflex  physical 
act,  and,  so  far  from  being  associated  with  pleasant  feelings, 
there  may  be  '  intense  pain — so  great,  indeed,  as  to  excite  a 
sense  of  impending  dissolution '  (Burton).  The  same  is 
probably  the  case  in  other  animals  ;  so  that  we^  ought  to  be 
careful  in  our  interpretation  of  the  nature  and  causes  in 
them  of  laughter  or  laughter-like  sounds. 

Nor  does  tickling  always  produce  the  same  kind  of 
results  in  other  animals  as  in  man ;  for  White  tells  us  that 
this  sort  of  touch  begets  '  f  ranticness ' — not  laughter  or 
anything  resembling  it — in  the  horse. 

Not  only,  then,  do  certain  animals  laugh,  but  they  are 
actuated  by  the  ideas  and  emotions  which  in  man  give  rise 
to  laughter.  In  particular  many  of  them  have  a  keen  sense 
of  fun  or  humour, 'to  which  they  give  expression  hi  a  great 


318  LAUGHTER  AND  WEEPING. 

variety  of  ways.  And  not  only  do  they  enjoy  and  appreciate 
fun  in  each  other,  but  they  understand,  appreciate,  and 
enjoy  that  of  man,  distinguishing  fun  or  joke  from,  earnest, 
and  the  fun  of  good  humour  and  good  intent  from  that  of 
ridicule  or  derision. 

Writing  to  me  in  July  1871,  the  late  Sir  Henry  Holland 
remarks,  *I  especially  allude  to  the  sense  of  fun  in  the 
higher  animals  as  a  striking  demonstration  of  the  relation 
of  their  [mental]  faculties  to  those  of  man.'  In  some  of  his 
published  works  he  draws  a  distinction  between  wit  and  fun, 
ascribing  a  sense  of  fun  to  the  monkey  and  the  dog,  but 
regarding  wit  as  a  characteristic  of  man  alone.  In  order, 
however,  to  justify  man's  monopoly  of  wit,  as  contrasted  with 
or  separated  from  fun,  it  must  obviously  be  redefined  in 
some  special  way ;  for,  according  to  the  usual  or  dictionary 
definition  of  wit  — '  the  power  of  combining  ideas  with 
ludicrous  effect' — there  can  be  no  doubt  of  its  being  an 
attribute  of  various  quadrupeds  and  birds. 

A  sense  of  fun  is  exhibited  in  various  ways  by  a  con- 
siderable variety  of  animals,  including  especially,  among  the 
Mammalia,  the  monkey  and  the  dog,  and  among  birds  the 
parrot,  mocking-bird,  and  starling.  They  show  it  more 
particularly  —  both  adult  and  young  animals  —  in  their 
own — 

1.  Practical  jokes  and — 

2.  Sports  or  games — 

and  in  the  part  which  these  animals  so  frequently  play  in 
the  jokes  and  sports  of  man.  Miss  Buist  asserts  that  some 
of  our  other  common  cage  birds,  besides  the  parrot  and 
starling,  display  what  appears  to  be  a  sense  of  the  humorous. 
The  f  Animal  World '  tells  us  of  a  canary  '  meaning  fun.' 
The  parrot  obviously  enjoys  and  appreciates  fun ;  it  exhibits 
merriment  or  mirth  sometimes  of  a  rollicking,  boisterous, 
demonstrative  kind  (Broderip).  White  speaks  of  a  pet 
rabbit  making  and  enjoying  fun  with  various  playfellows. 
Fun  in  the  mouse  is  displayed  in  its  antics  ('  Animal  World '). 
Fun  occurs  even  in  the  bull  (Buckland).  Miss  Cobbe  says, 
*  The  goose  ....  has  perhaps  the  keenest  appreciation  of 
humour  of  any  animal,  unless  it  be  her  own  arch-enemy  the 


LAUGHTER  AND  WEEPING.  319 

fox.'  And  she  illustrates  this  assertion  by  the  narrative  of 
a  practical  joke  played  on  a  number  of  pigs  by  a  flock  of 
geese.  The  poor  porkers  were  caused  to  '  run  the  gauntlet ' 
down  a  lane  of  geese  biting  at  them  with  their  bills,  simply 
in  order  to  frighten  them  and  that  the  geese  might  enjoy 
the  terror  and  squalling  of  the  pigs.  Wood  mentions  an 
Irish  terrier  that  had  a  keen  love  of  fun,  '  and  no  one  could 
have  been  more  fertile  in  hitting  upon  plans  for  gratifying 
it.'  The  horse  (Nichols),  the  hare  ((  Percy  Anecdotes  '),  rooks 
(White),  all  engage  in  frolic  of  different  kinds.  All  young 
animals  occupy  themselves  largely  in  gambols,  and  all  their 
various  modes  of  self-amusement  involve  a  certain  amount 
of  fun.  The  humorousness  of  their  practical  jokes  has 
been  specially  noted  in  the  Ehesus  and  Diana  monkeys 
(Cassell). 

These  practical  jokes,  and  consequently  the  humour 
involved,  are  sometimes  of  a  grim  or  ghastly  kind  —  for 
instance,  in  certain  cases  in  which  the  perpetrator  takes  a 
cruel  delight  in  the  suffering  or  torture  of  its  fellow.  Such 
cruel  fun  is  not  confined  by  any  means  to  monkeys  (Buck- 
land),  but  is  to  be  met  with  also  in  the  parrot.  The  dog, 
too,  has  certain  modes  of  making  or  taking  fun  at  the 
expense  of  suffering  in  other  animals.  For  instance,  it 
amuses  itself  not  only  by  chasing  sheep,  but  by  worrying 
them  or  biting  their  forelegs  or  feet  ('Animal  World').  I 
had  a  terrier  that  proved  a  nuisance  from  its  habit  of  seizing 
all  barefooted  beggars  by  the  feet. 

*  One  of  my  horses,'  says  Baker  Pasha,  *  out  of  pure 
amusement,  kicks  at  the  men  as  they  pass,  and  having 
succeeded  several  times  in  kicking  them  into  the  river,  he 
perseveres  in  the  fun — I  believe  for  lack  of  other  employ- 
ment.' 

Certain  animals,  and  especially  certain  dogs,  under- 
stand or  appreciate  man's  fun,  entering  into  it  thoroughly, 
co-operating  with  him  in  carrying  it  on  or  out.  Thus  a 
favourite  terrier  of  Sir  Edwin  Landseer's  'readily  learned 
his  master's  will,  and  equally  understood  his  fun '  (Macaulay 
and '  Animal  World ').  Dogs,  and  even  cats,  take  part  in  the 
fun  and  frolic — sometimes  rough  or  boisterous  enough — of 
22 


320  LAUGHTEE  AND   WEEPING. 

their  child  playfellows.  Thus  a  cat '  would  allow  itself  to 
be  rolled  up  or  swung  about  in  a  tablecloth,  never  making 
any  resistance,  but  purring  and  seeming  to  enjoy  the  fun ' 
('Animal  World'). 

Moreover,  some  dogs  distinguish  the  different  kinds  of 
man's  laughter — that  which  is  good-humoured  or  sympa- 
thetic from  what  is  sarcastic.  They  know  full  well  the 
difference  between  being  laughed  at  and  laughed  with — 
being  made  the  subject  of  derision  and  being  the  cause  of 
harmless  merriment.  Their  sensitiveness  to  anything  like 
ridicule  from  man  causes  them  to  dislike,  and  probably  to 
resent,  all  forms  or  degrees  of  being  laughed  at;  they 
decline  becoming  the  subjects  of  any  sort  of  derisive 
laughter.  They  not  unfrequently  even  try  to  produce  laughter 
in  man  —  that  sort  of  laughter  which  betokens  his  being 
simply  amused — and  they  are  chagrined  if  their  efforts  fail. 
Thus  Romanes  tells  us  of  a  Skye  terrier  that  endeavoured 
to  amuse  its  master  and  provoke  his  laughter  by  performing 
certain  tricks  that  it  had  taught  itself,  the  dog  becoming 
sulky  if  its  efforts  to  please  were  not  successful.  An  orang, 
too,  in  the  London  Zoological  Gardens  showed  gratifica- 
tion at  the  human  laughter  excited  by  its  practical  jokes 
(Romanes).  Wood  mentions  a  tame  jackdaw  enjoying  the 
fun  of  boys'  games — leapfrog  or  races — as  much  apparently 
as  the  boys  themselves  did. 

We  have  already  seen  how  frequently,  and  in  how  many 
respects,  the  character  of  such  an  animal  as  the  dog  becomes 
a  reflex  of  that  of  its  master.  A  man  brimful  of  good- 
natured  fun — a  human  wag,  fond  of  amusing  practical  jokes 
— naturally  begets,  by  imitation  and  sympathy,  what  might 
be  called  a  'comical'  dog — one  ready  not  only  to  take  part 
in  its  master's  fun,  but  to  indulge  in  fun  on  its  own  account 
(Cobbe). 

It  has  been  shown,  then,  that  certain  animals  can,  on  the 
one  hand,  laugh,  and  on  the  other  possess  unmistakably  a 
sense  of  humour ;  but  it  does  not  follow  that  the  sense  in 
question,  and  its  expression  in  laughter,  co-exist  in  the  same 
animal — in  the  relation  of  cause  and  effect.  Doubtless  they 
do  so  sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of  the  waggish,  fun-loving 


LAUGHTER  AND  WEEPING.  321 

parrot.  But,  in  the  first  place,  there  are  in  various  ani- 
mals laughterlike  sounds — frequently  or  usually  described  as 
'  laughter ' — that  have  no  connection  probably  •with  a  sense 
of  fun ;  while,  in  the  second,  the  sense  in  question,  where  it 
exists,  is  not  necessarily,  or  even  generally  or  frequently, 
manifested  by  laughter. 

Nor  does  it  follow  that,  in  other  animals  any  more  than 
in  man,  laughter  is  to  be  considered  an  expression  of  fun  or 
humour  only.  In  such  a  bird  as  the  parrot  it  may  embody 
sarcasm  or  derision,  defiance  or  insult,  as  well  as  fun.  The 
grinning  of  certain  monkeys  and  apes  is  also  not  necessarily 
or  always  associated  with  a  sense  of  amusement;  it  may,  and 
does,  arise  from  other  feelings  or  causes,  as  in  man.  A 
chuckle,  too,  may  arise  in  the  same  animals  from  a  simple 
feeling  of  satisfaction  at  success  or  good  fortune. 

Of  mere  laughterlike  sounds  the  following  are  illustra- 
tions : — 

1.  A   certain   Indian   hyaena  is   called  the   '  laughing ' 
hysena,  from  the  peculiarity  of  its  cry.     The  voice  of  this — 
the  spotted — hysena,  when  excited,  '  resembles  a  most  un- 
earthly laugh'  (Sclater). 

2.  An  Australian  bird — a  kingfisher — is  known  as  the 
'  laughing  '  jackass  for  a  similar  reason  ;  and  Baden  Powell 
speaks  of  the  '  ridiculosity '  of  the  laugh  both  of  the  bird 
and  the  hysena — in  reference  apparently  to  its  resemblance 
to    human    laughter.     Sclater  says  that  the   note  of  this 
'  laughing  kingfisher,'  as   it   is   called    in  the   '  Guide   to 
the  Zoological  Gardens  of  London,'  *  strangely  resembles  a 
rude,  powerful  laugh.' 

3.  The  francolins  of  South  Africa — birds,  species  of  Scler- 
optera — have  notes  that  '  resemble  a  succession  of  hysterical 
laughs — at  first  slow,  but  increasing  in  rapidity  and  strength 
till  they  suddenly  cease'  (Andersson). 

4.  One  of  the  cries  of  the  dog-hysena  is  what  Murray 
calls  a  *  laughing  chatter.' 

5.  A  pigeon  —  the  Indian  turtle  dove — is  called  'the 
laugher'  (Schmidt). 

6.  Livingstone  mentions  an  African  (brown)  ibis  whose 
cry  is  *  a  loud  ha-ha-ha  ! ' 


322  LAUGHTER  AND   WEEPING. 

7.  Miss  Cobbe  describes  the  cackling,  screeching  or 
screaming,  and  yelling,  in  delight  or  exultation,  of  a  flock 
of  geese  as  ( almost  indistinguishable  from  human  laughter.' 

It  must  be  evident  that  in  animals  so  different  in  struc- 
ture and  habits  not  only  must  the  various  forms  of  'laughter' 
— so  called  —  differ  materially  in  their  character  even  as 
mere  sounds,  but  must  also  be  the  vocal  expressions  of  very 
different  feelings.  In  certain  birds  the  laughterlike  sound 
is  either  the  ordinary  note  or  call,  or  one  of  the  ordinary  or 
extraordinary  notes  or  calls,  intended  to  intimate  their  pre- 
sence, solicit  the  society  of  their  mates,  issue  warning  of 
danger,  or  give  expression  to  some  other  want  or  feeling. 
In  the  hysena,  and  probably  other  animals,  the  sound 
emitted  is  more  of  the  nature  of  a  cry  of  annoyance  or 
irritation.  Only  in  the  case  of  the  geese  is  there  any 
provable  association  of  a  sense  and  enjoyment  of  fun. 

On  the  other  hand,  humour  may  be  exuberant  and  yet 
not  express  itself  in  laughter,  or  in  voice-sounds  of  any 
kind.  The  dog,  for  instance,  shows  his  appreciation  of  fun 
in  his  sparkling,  merry  eye,  in  his  facial  features  as  a 
whole,  in  his  rolling  over  and  over,  running  about  wildly  or 
round  and  round,  in  his  whole  aspect  and  demeanour,  look 
and  manner. 

Just  as  it  has  been  shown  that  various  animals  possess 
the  physical  apparatus  necessary  for  laughter — while  they 
are  actuated  by  those  feelings  or  ideas  that  in  man  give  rise 
to  it — so  it  can  be  equally  shown  that  certain  animals  are 
not  only  gifted  with  the  physical  apparatus  necessary  for 
the  production  and  effusion  of  tears,  and  for  the  actions  or 
phenomena  of  weeping  and  sobbing,  but  also  with  the 
emotions  or  conceptions  that  in  man  give  rise  to  tears  and 
weeping. 

What  have  been  described  as  true  tears  are  shed — 
especially  under  the  emotion  of  grief — by  a  considerable 
number  and  variety  of  animals,  including  the  dog,  horse, 
elephant,  bear,  rat,  donkey,  mule,  various  deer,  soko,  chim- 
panzee, mandrill,  orang,  titi  or  other  monkeys  or  apes, 
cattle,  camel,  giraffe ;  while  there  are  other  animals — such 
as  the  parrot  (Watson) — in  which,  though  tears  are  not 


LAUGHTER  AND  WEEPING.  323 

specified,  the  action  of  sobbing  or  weeping  is  nevertheless 
represented  as  occurring.  Whatever  may  be  the  case  in 
man,  it  would  appear  that  in  other  animals  the  phenomena 
of  weeping  or  sobbing  do  not  necessarily  involve  the  presence 
•  of  tears. 

Whether  accompanied  or  unaccompanied  by  demon- 
strable tears,  the  action  of  weeping  occurs  most  frequently, 
in  other  animals  as  in  man,  under  the  powerful  influence  of 
grief  or  sorrow  of  all  kinds,  especially  that  resulting  from  or 
connected  with  bereavement — of  young,  mates,  companions, 
or  human  masters.  But  weeping  is  the  fruit  also  of  other 
emotions,  some  of  them  of  a  curious  or  a  complex  cha- 
racter. Thus  I  have  notes  of  its  occurrence  from — 

1.  Mere  emotionalness  —  as  in  certain  monkeys,   from 
being  pitied  by  man  (Darwin  and  Eengger). 

2.  Despair — as  in  the  stag  at  bay  (Low)  or  the  caged 
rat  (Reedy). 

3.  Fright,  terror,  or  fear — in  the  titi  or  other  monkeys 
(Humboldt,  Cassell). 

4.  Captivity  and  its  resultant  melancholy — in  the  Indian 
and   Cingalese    elephant  (Darwin    and  Tennent),   and    in 
monkeys  (Darwin). 

5.  Joy. 

6.  Bodily  pain,  fatigue,  or  want — such  as  thirst. 

7.  Sense  of  ill-usage,  including  wrong  or  degradation. 

8.  Fond  or  sad  memories. 

9.  Sympathy. 

10.  Disappointment  or  chagrin — as  in  monkeys  (Eengger), 
and  elephants  (Houzeau). 

11.  Sadness  and  regret. 

12.  Old  age  or  the  dying  state. 

13.  Pettishness  at  non-compliance  with  whims — as   in 
the  young  soko  (Livingstone)  and  orang  (Yvan). 

14.  Dread  of    punishment — in   chimpanzees     or    other 
Quadrumana  trained  to  man's  service. 

Weeping,  like  laughter,  then,  arises  from  emotions  and 
ideas  of  the  most  opposite  kind,  as  well  as  from  bodily 
sufferings  or  impressions — all  just  as  in  man. 

It  is  not  enough,  however,  merely  to  assert  that  various 


324  LAUGHTER  AND  WEEPING. 

animals  shed  tears  under  certain  mental  influences ;  it  is 
desirable,  if  not  necessary,  to  give  illustrations  of  the  fact, 
with  the  names  of  the  authorities  who  have  observed  it. 

Mrs.  Burton,  speaking  of  thirsty  horses  in  the  Syrian 
Desert,  says,  'I  have  seen  the  tears  roll  down  their  cheeks 
with  thirst.'  Of  a  mule  crippled  by  a  two-inch  nail  in  its 
foot, '  His  face  was  the  picture  of  pain  and  despair.  Tears 
streamed  out  of  his  eyes.'  And,  again,  of  a  camel,  '  Tears 
streamed  from  the  eyes.'  Cows  'weep  often  when  in  sorrow,' 
says  another  authoress — Mrs.  Mackellar.  She  mentions  one 
sold  by  its  mistress,  who  had  brought  it  up,  that  '  would 
stand  lowing  pitifully  all  day  long  ....  with  the  tears 
streaming  down  her  face.'  A  young  soko,  Livingstone  tells 
us,  if  not  taken  up  in  the  arms  like  a  child,  when  it  desired 
and  appealed  to  be  so  carried,  engaged  in  '  the  most  bitter 
human-like  weeping.' 

Chimpanzees,  in  Sierra  Leone,  that  have  been  trained  to 
carry  water-jugs  for  man,  '  weep  bitterly '  when  they  let 
them  fall  and  see  them  in  pieces  at  their  feet  ('  Wonders  of 
Nature  and  Art ').  Dr.  Boerlage  shot  a  female  (mother) 
ape  in  Java,  that  fell  mortally  wounded  from  a  tree,  '  tightly 
clasping  a  young  one  in  her  arms,  and  she  died  weeping ' 
(Biichner). 

A  giraffe,  wounded  by  a  rifle  shot,  was  also  found  to 
have  '  tears  trickling  from  the  lashes  of  his  dark,  humid 
eyes '  (Sir  Wm.  Harris).  Some  old  rats,  finding  a  young 
one  dead  by  drowning,  'wiped  the  tears  from  their  eyes 
with  their  fore-paws  '  ('Animal  World').  Gordon  Gumming 
describes  large  tears  as  trickling  from  the  eyes  of  a  dying 
elephant. 

Steller,  the  companion  of  Behring's  second  voyage  of 
discovery,  asserts  that  the  mother  sea-bear  of  Kamtschatka 
'  sheds  tears  ; '  while  the  male  parent,  '  when  he  sees  that  his 
young  is  irrevocably  lost  ....  like  the  mother,  begins  to 
cry  so  bitterly  that  the  tears  trickle  down  upon  his  breast ' 
(Hartwig).  Dr.  Yvan  mentions  an  orang  that  wept  when  a 
mango  was  taken  from  him,  just  as  a  child  would  have 
done. 

In  certain  cases  there  is  sobbing  without  tears,  or  the 


LAUGHTER  AND  WEEPING.  325 

utterance,  unaccompanied  by  tears,  of  cries,  groans,  or 
moans,  though  arising  from  the  same  kind  of  causes  as 
weeping.  Tennent  describes  sobs  and  'choking  cries,'  as 
well  as  tears,  in  the  captured  elephant;  while  Houzeau 
speaks  of  a  young  one  '  crying '  on  the  death  of  its  mother. 
Buckland  alludes  to  sobs  in  the  dog. 

Weeping,  like  laughter,  is  sometimes  very  humanlike  in 
its  character.  Thus  Bontius  describes  the  weeping  of  an 
orang  as  resembling  that  of  a  woman. 

Not  only,  however,  do  certain  animals  themselves  shed 
tears,  but  the  dog  at  least  frequently  understands  the  signi- 
ficance of  those  of  man.  That  is  to  say,  it  connects  them 
with  sorrow  or  suffering,  and  this  connection  leads  it  to 
offer  fond  expressions  of  condolence  —  to  make  various 
attempts  at  consolation. 

It  only  remains  to  note  that,  as  in  man,  the  same  cause — 
the  same  emotion — may  give  rise  equally  to  laughter  and 
tears  in  the  same  or  different  animals  —  at  the  same  or 
different  times,  according  to  their  temperaments  or  idiosyn- 
crasies. Thus  joy,  especially  when  sudden  and  excessive, 
produces  sometimes  laughter,  sometimes  tears,  sometimes 
neither,  just  as  in  man  (Darwin). 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

EXPRESSIVENESS   OP   ANIMAL    LANGUAGE. 

LANGUAGE — of  whatever  form — among  the  lower  animals  is 
used  voluntarily  and  deliberately,  or  involuntarily,  mainly 
for  the  following  purposes  : — 

1.  To  call  each  other  or  man,  either  particular  individuals 
or  the  various  members  of  a  family,  or  of  a  flock  or  herd. 
These   '  calls,'  which  are   in  an  infinite  variety   of   forms, 
include — 

a.  Sexual  calls — for  suitors  or  mates  in  the  season  of 
sexual  love,  for  the  purposes  of  pairing. 

&.  Maternal  and  parental  calls  to  the  young,  having 
reference  chiefly  to  two  great  objects — food-supply  and  pro- 
tection from  danger. 

c.  Assembly  calls — to  rally  or  collect,  or  keep  together, 
the  scattering  or  scattered  members  of  a  flock  or  herd — in 
war,  the  march,  or  migration. 

d.  Summonses  for  aid. 

2.  To  make  intimations  or  announcements  of — 

a.  Their  intentions,  purposes,  plans — including  their 
decisions. 

&.  Their  wants  of  all  kinds — including  their  urgency. 

c.  Information  or  intelligence  of  various  kinds — relating, 
for  instance,  to  food,  booty,  or  danger. 

3.  To  hold  consultations — deliberative  councils,  discussions, 
or  debates  on  important  *  questions  of  the  day  ' — concerning, 
for  instance,  the  necessity  for  war,  the  means  of  defence,  the 
sites  of  emigration-fields,  or  the  time  for  migration. 

4.  To  conduct  public  trials,  apparently  by  jury,  including 
advocacy,  accusation,  conviction,  judgment,  and  punishment. 


EXPRESSIVENESS   OF  ANIMAL  LANGUAGE.  327 

5.  To    give    expression  to   their   emotions   or    feelings, 
changes  of  mood  or  temper,  passions,  appetites  or  desires — 
including  their  sense  of  hunger  and  thirst — of  cold,  heat,  or 
fatigue. 

6.  To  give  warning   of   danger — including   the   use    of 
signals. 

7.  To  attract  notice  or  attention. 

8.  To    intimidate    or    terrify,    including    menacing    or 
threatening,  in  jest  or  earnest — for  instance,  in — 

a.  Practical  jokes. 
6.  Prey-capture. 
c.  War  or  defence. 

9.  To  charm,  captivate,  or  fascinate — 
a.  The  other  sex  in  courtship. 

6.  Prey — in  order  to  their  capture. 

10.  To  issue  orders  or  commands ;  make  requests  or  de- 
mands. 

1 1.  To  make  responses  or  replies. 

12.  To   demonstrate  or  point  out  places   or  things    de- 
sirable, or  the  reverse. 

13.  To  repress  or  conceal  their  real  feelings,   ideas,  or 
intentions. 

14.  To  challenge  to  trials  of  strength — in  love-rivalry, 
war,  or  competition  for  leaderships. 

Such  a  specification  of  the  applications  of  animal  language, 
however,  gives  no  adequate  idea  of  its  expressiveness.  In 
order  to  the  formation  of  some  proper  conception  of  the 
number  and  variety  of  the  mental  states  represented  by  the 
different  forms  of  language  in  the  lower  animals^  the  follow- 
ing alphabetical  table  has  been  compiled.  The  words  or 
terms  used  or  enumerated  are  those  employed  by  the  va- 
rious writers  mentioned  in  the  Bibliography.  No  doubt 
some  terms  are  mere  synonyms  of  certain  others,  different 
writers  using  different  words  to  express  what  is  virtually 
the  same  idea ;  but,  in  other  cases,  even  where  words 
may  appear  to  be,  or  to  be  capable  of  being  made  or  re- 
garded as,  synonymous,  there  are  shades  of  difference, 
which  may  or  may  not  be  apparent  with  or  without  due 
observation  and  reflection — that  is  to  say,  without  proper 


328 


EXPEESSIVENESS   OF  ANIMAL  LANGUAGE. 


study  of  the  intricate  subject  of  animal  language  and  its 
interpretation. 


Absorption. 

Animation. 

Blame,  imputation 

Abuse. 

Announcements, 

of. 

Accident     or   un- 

making and  re- 

—    sense  of. 

usual       contin- 

ceiving. 

Blandishment. 

gency,  sense  of. 

Annoyance. 

Boastfulness. 

Acquaintanceship. 

Answering  to  ques- 

Buoyancy of 

Address,  paying. 

tions. 

spirits. 

Adoration. 

Anticipation. 

Business,  sense  of. 

Advantage,    sense 

Antipathy. 

of. 

Anxiety. 

Cajolery  or 

Adventuresome- 

Apathy. 

Coaxing. 

ness. 

Apology. 

CaU. 

Advice,   power    of 

Appeal. 

Calmness. 

giving. 

Appetite,  sexual  or 

Caricature. 

Affectation. 

other. 

Caution. 

Affection. 

Apprehension. 

Chagrin. 

Affirmation. 

Approval. 

Challenge. 

Affliction. 

Ardour. 

Chastisement, 

Affront,   desire  to 

Arrogance. 

sense  of. 

offer. 

Astonishment. 

Cheerfulness. 

Affront,  sense  of. 

Attachment         to 

Choice. 

Agitation. 

persons,   places, 

Churlishness. 

Agony,  or 

other  animals. 

Civility. 

Anguish,  physi- 

Attention. 

Coldness,  or 

cal    or    men- 

Authority, sense  of. 

Coolness,  of  feel- 

tal. 

Aversion. 

ing. 

Aid,  desire  for 

Awe. 

Combativeness. 

—   intention  of 

Comfort,  sense  of. 

giving. 

Bad  temper. 

Command. 

Alacrity. 

Begging. 

Companionship, 

Alarm. 

Belief. 

love  of. 

Alertness. 

Benefit,  sense  of 

Compassion. 

Amity. 

Benignity. 

Complacency. 

Amorousness. 

Bereavement,sense 

Complaint. 

Amusement. 

of. 

Complaisance. 

Anger. 

Bewilderment. 

Compliance. 

EXPRESSIVENESS  OF  ANIMAL  LANGUAGE. 


329 


Compliment,    pay- 

Defence. 

Disobedience. 

ing. 

Defiance. 

Display,  love  of. 

Compliment,  sense 

Dejection. 

Displeasure,  sense 

of. 

Delight. 

of  man's. 

Conciliation. 

Deliverance,  sense 

Dissatisfaction. 

Condemnation, 

of. 

Distress,  mental. 

sense  of. 

Delusion. 

Disturbance,  or 

Confession. 

Demand. 

Disorder,    men- 

Confidence. 

Demonstrativeness 

tal. 

Confusion. 

Demureness. 

Diversion. 

Congratulation. 

Deprecation. 

Doubt. 

Consciousness. 

Depression,mental. 

Dread. 

Consequentially. 

Derision. 

Drollery. 

Consternation. 

Desire  and  desires. 

Drudgery,  sense  of. 

Constraint. 

Despair. 

Duty,  sense  of. 

Contempt. 

Desperation. 

Content  or 

Despondency. 

Eagerness. 

Contentment. 

Detection,  sense  of. 

Earnestness. 

Conventionality. 

Determination. 

Ease,  sense  of. 

Coquetry. 

Difference,  sense  of. 

Ecstasy. 

Cordiality. 

Difficulty,  sense  of. 

Effrontery. 

Courage. 

Diffidence. 

Effusiveness. 

Courtesy. 

Dignity. 

Elation  of  spirits. 

Courtship. 

Disappointment. 

Embarrassment. 

Covetousness. 

Disapprobation. 

Emergency,    sense 

Cowardice. 

Discomfiture,  sense 

of. 

Coxcombry. 

of. 

Emotion. 

Craftiness. 

Discomfort,    sense 

Emulation. 

Craving  —  for  love, 

of. 

Encouragement, 

society,  or  com- 

Discomposure. 

desire  to  give. 

panionship. 

Disconsolateness. 

Encouragement, 

Cruelty,    sense    of 

Discontent. 

sense  of. 

received. 

Discovery,  sense  of. 

Endurance. 

Cunning. 

Disdain. 

Energy. 

Curiosity. 

Disease,       mental 

Enjoyment. 

and  bodily. 

Enmity. 

Danger,  sense  of. 

Disgrace,  sense  of. 

Ennui. 

Decision. 

Disgust. 

Enquiry. 

Defeat,  sense  of. 

Dislike. 

Enthusiasm. 

330 


EXPRESSIVENESS   OF   ANIMAL  LANGUAGE. 


Entreaty. 

Fieriness  of   tem- 

Happiness. 

Envy. 

per  or  spirit. 

Hate  or 

Error. 

Fondness. 

Hatred. 

Escape,  sense  of. 

Forebodings. 

Haughtiness. 

Esteem. 

Freedom,  sense  of. 

Heartiness. 

Exaltation,     sense 

Fretfulness. 

Hesitation. 

of. 

Friendliness  or 

Holiday,  sense  of. 

Exasperation. 

Friendship. 

Hope. 

Excitement,    men- 

Fright. 

Hopelessness. 

tal. 

Frivolity. 

Horror. 

Execration. 

Fun. 

Hostility. 

Exhaustion,  bodily 

Fury. 

Humiliation,  sense 

Exhilaration. 

of. 

Exhortation. 

Gaiety  of  spirits. 

Humility. 

Existence,  sense  of. 

Gallantry. 

Humour. 

Expectation  or 

Generosity. 

Hunger. 

Expectancy. 

Gentleness. 

Hypersensitive- 

Expostulation. 

Gladness. 

ness. 

Exuberance         of 

Glee. 

spirits      or      of 

Gloom,  or 

Ideas. 

emotion. 

Gloominess,  of 

Identity. 

Exultation. 

spirits. 

Ignorance. 

Glory,  sense  of. 

Ill  humour  or  na- 

Falsehood, sense  of. 

Good  breeding. 

ture. 

Familiarity. 

—     feeling. 

Illness,  bodily  a,nd 

Farewell  or 

Good   luck,    sense 

mental. 

Goodbye. 

of. 

Imagination  and 

Fatigue,  bodily. 

Good  nature,  tem- 

Imaginativeness. 

Favour,  design  to 

per,  or  humour. 

Imitation. 

confer. 

Good  wishes. 

Impatience. 

Favour,  sense  of. 

Gratification. 

Imperiousness. 

Favouritism. 

Gratitude. 

Importunity. 

Fear. 

Gravity  or 

Imposture. 

Fearlessness. 

Graveness. 

Impudence. 

Feelings  and  feel- 

Greeting. 

Inclination. 

ing. 

Grief. 

Incoherency. 

Fidgetiness. 

Gruffness. 

Indifference. 

Fierceness  or 

Guardianship. 

Indignation. 

Ferocity. 

Guilt,  sense  of. 

Indolence. 

EXPRESSIVENESS   OF  ANIMAL  LANGUAGE. 


331 


Information,  or 

Love,  sexual. 

Order,  sense  of. 

Intelligence,  giv- 

Lugubriousness. 

Orders,  giving. 

ing  and  receiv- 

ing- 

Magnanimity. 

Pain,  both  of  body 

Injustice,  sense  of. 

Malice  or 

and  mind. 

Innocence. 

Maliciousness. 

Passions. 

Insanity,     various 

Meaning. 

Pathos. 

forms  of. 

Meanness. 

Patience. 

Insolence. 

Meekness. 

Peace,  sense  of. 

Insult,     desire    to 

Melancholy. 

Peevishness. 

offer. 

Memory,  retentive- 

Pensiveness. 

Insult,  sense  of. 

ness  of. 

Peremptoriness. 

Intentions. 

Menace. 

Perfun  ctorines  s  . 

Intentness. 

Mercy,     receiving 

Perplexity. 

Interest. 

and  showing. 

Pertinacity. 

Interrogation. 

Merit,  sense  of. 

Pertness. 

Irascibility. 

Mildness  of  dispo- 

Petition. 

Irritability. 

sition. 

Pet  or 

Irritation. 

Mimicry. 

Pettedness. 

Investigation. 

Mirth. 

Pity  and 

Mischievousness. 

Piteousness. 

Jealousy. 

Misery. 

Petulance. 

Jeering. 

Mockery. 

Plaintiveness. 

Jest. 

Moodiness. 

Plans. 

Joke. 

Mourning  and 

Playfulness. 

Joy. 

Mournfulness. 

Pleading. 

Justice,  sense  of. 

Pleasure,  both    of 

Necessities  or 

body  and  mind. 

Kindness,       sense 

Needs. 

Politeness. 

of. 

Negation. 

Praise,    apprecia- 

News,  giving  and 

tion  of. 

Lamentation. 

receiving. 

Preference. 

Languishing. 

Nobility    of     cha- 

Pretence. 

Liberty,  sense  of. 

racter. 

Pride. 

Likings. 

Novelty,  sense  of. 

Promptitude. 

Listlessness. 

Propitiation. 

Loathing. 

Obedience. 

Protection,     sense 

Longings. 

Obstinacy. 

of. 

Loss,  sense  of. 

Offence,  sense  of. 

Protest. 

332 


EXPEESSIVENESS   OF  ANIMAL  LANGUAGE. 


Provocation. 

Resentment. 

Shelter,  sense  of. 

Punishment,  sense 

Resignation. 

Shyness. 

of. 

Resistance. 

Signs  or 

Purpose. 

Resolution. 

Signals. 

Pusillanimity. 

Respect  or 

Slyness. 

Regard. 

Soberness  or 

Quarrelsomeness. 

Restlessness       of 

Sobriety. 

Questioning. 

mind. 

Solemnity. 

Revenge. 

Solicitation. 

Rage. 

Rivalry. 

Solicitude. 

Rapture. 

Rudeness. 

Sorrow. 

Rebuke. 

Spirit. 

Recognition. 

Sadness. 

Spite  or 

Recovery,  sense  of. 

Safety,  sense  of. 

Spitefulness. 

Refinement. 

Salutation. 

Sportiveness. 

Reflection. 

Satire  or 

Sprightliness. 

Refusal. 

Sarcasm. 

Stealthiness. 

Regret. 

Satisfaction. 

Strangeness,  sense 

Reinstatement   in, 

Scolding. 

of. 

or     Restoration 

Sedateness. 

Strength,  sense  of, 

to,  favour,  sense 

Self-absorption. 

or     of    its    ab- 

of. 

—  approbation. 

sence. 

Rejoicing. 

—  compliment. 

Stupidity. 

Relaxation,    sense 

—  conceit. 

Suavity. 

of. 

—  control. 

Submissiveness  and 

Release,  or 

—  defence,  sense 

Submission. 

Relief,  sense  of. 

of  necessity 

Success,  sense  of. 

Remonstrance. 

for. 

Suffering,    mental 

Repartee. 

—  gratulation. 

or  bodily. 

Repentance. 

—  importance. 

Sulkiness. 

Reply  or 

—  love. 

Sullenness. 

Response. 

—  reliance. 

Supplication. 

Repose,  sense  of. 

—  repression. 

Surliness. 

Reproach. 

—  satisfaction. 

Surprise. 

Repugnance. 

—  sufliciency. 

Suspicion  or 

Repulsion  and 

Selfishness. 

Suspiciousness. 

Repulsiveness. 

Sensations. 

Sympathy. 

Requests. 

Seriousness. 

Requirements. 

Shame,  sense  of. 

Temper. 

EXPEESSIVENESS   OF  ANIMAL  LANGUAGE. 


333 


Tenderness. 

Unusual,  sense   of 

Watchfulness. 

Terror. 

the. 

Waywardness. 

Thanks. 

Upbraiding. 

Weakness,     sense 

Thirst. 

Urbanity. 

of  physical. 

Thoughtfulness. 

Urgency. 

Weariness. 

Thoughts. 

Uxoriousness. 

Welcome. 

Threats  and 

Wilfulness. 

Threatening. 

Valour. 

Willingness. 

Timidity. 

Vanity. 

Wishes. 

Timorousness. 

Vehemence. 

Wistfulness. 

Transport. 

Vexation. 

Woe. 

Trepidation. 

Victory,  sense  of. 

Wonder. 

Triumph,  sense  of. 

Vigilance. 

Wooing. 

Vivacity. 

Worry,  sense  of. 

Unconcern.     . 

Vulgarity. 

Wrath. 

Understanding. 

Wrong-doing, 

Uneasiness  —  of 

Wants. 

sense  of. 

mind  or  body. 

War,  disposition  or 

Wounded  feeling. 

Unseen,   dread    of 

readiness  for. 

the. 

Warning. 

Yearning. 

CHAPTER    XVII. 

INTELLIGIBILITY   OP   EACH   OTHER'S   LANGUAGE. 

THE  different  individuals  of  the  same  species  thoroughly 
understand  the  language  of  the  species,  whatever  be  its  nature. 
It  is  as  intelligible  to  the  whole  community  as  is  the 
language  of  any  nation  of  men  to  the  individuals  composing 
the  nation ;  much  more  so  indeed,  when  it  is  remembered 
that  among  civilised  peoples  at  least,  what  is  called  and 
considered  the  proper  language — as  written,  printed,  and 
spoken — of  the  people,  is  intelligible  only  to  the  educated ; 
while  the  special  language  of  one  class  is  unintelligible  to 
those  who  are  not  members  of  the  class,  or  who  have  not 
studied  its  special  phraseology. 

Animals  then  of  the  same  species  have  mutual  under- 
standings. They  show  in  a  thousand  ways  how  speedily  and 
readily  they  interchange  feelings  and  ideas ;  receive  and 
communicate  information ;  realise  each  other's  position, 
wants,  or  wishes.  They  make  instant  response  or  reply  to 
the  calls  or  signals  of  their  fellows,  whether  in  the  wild 
or  domesticated  state,  and  domesticated  to  those  of  wild 
animals,  or  vice  versa — as  in  the  goose,  ape,  or  elephant. 
The  number  and  variety  of  the  feelings  and  ideas  which  are 
communicated  to  each  other  by  the  ant  and  hive  bee  are 
pointed  out  by  Houzeau.  The  leader  of  wild  horse  or 
elephant  troops  makes  his  wishes  or  orders  on  the  march  or 
in  defence  thoroughly  known  to  the  rest  (Watson). 

Gestures  of  mutual  understanding  between  the  sexes 
take  place  in  the  fowl  (Darwin).  The  mother  fox's  plaint  or 
wail  is  understood  and  obeyed  as  a  danger  signal  by  her 
young  (Houzeau). 


INTELLIGIBILITY   OF   EACH   OTHER'S  LANGUAGE.        335 

The  dog  conveys  his  wishes  and  purposes  to  his  fellows 
(Low),  but  how  he  does  so  does  not  always  appear — for 
instance,  among  the  pariah  dogs  of  Damascus,  according  to 
Mrs.  Burton.  The  dog  issues  invitations  to  his  companions 
— to  share  food,  to  go  poaching,  to  assist  in  defence  or 
punishment,  and  the  others  accept  or  decline  these  invita- 
tions (Cobbe). 

Certain  animals  use  different  danger  signals  for  different 
kinds  or  degrees  of  danger,  and  their  relative  significance  is 
thoroughly  understood  by  those  for  whom  they  are  intended. 
Certain  other  animals  engage  in  their  assemblies  in  discussion 
or  debate,  which  is  understood  by  the  whole  body  of  auditors 
or  spectators.  The  alarm  notes  of  the  sentinels  of  many 
gregarious  animals  are  instantly  understood.  In  ants  on  the 
march  there  is  communication  of  intelligence  throughout 
the  troop.  They  show  their  mutual  understanding  in  asking 
aid,  issuing  invitations,  and  giving  advice  (Figuier). 

Bees  give  each  other  information  of  their  projects.  Their 
sentinel  or  watchman  issues  his  summons  to  defence,  which 
command  is  instantly  understood  and  obeyed.  They  '  beat  to 
arms'  (figuratively)  when  defence  becomes  necessary  in 
threatened  danger  (Figuier).  Their  power  of  communication 
with  each  other  before  they  swarm  is  commented  on  by' 
Watson.  The  warning  cry  of  cattle  in  danger  collects  the 
whole  herd,  to  act  on  the  defensive  or  offensive  (Pierquin). 
The  despatch  and  reception  of  news  is  described  in  rooks  by 
Watson.  The  issuing  and  accepting  of  invitations  is  illus- 
trated by  bower-birds  inviting  their  neighbours  to  their 
dancing  assemblies. 

Sound  becomes  an  important  means  of  establishing  iden- 
tity— of  recognising  each  other — when  there  is  a  change 
both  of  aspect  and  smell.  For  instance,  the  bleat  of  the 
sheep  or  lamb,  after  sheep-shearing  or  washing,  leads  to 
mutual  recognition  by  mother  and  offspring  (White).  Re- 
sponse of  the  young  to  the  old — to  the  parental  call-notes 
of  birds,  for  instance — implies  an  understanding  on  both 
sides  of  the  significance  of  the  sounds  (Houzeau). 

According  to  Belt,  foraging  ants  follow  each  other  by 
scent,  and  communicate  intelligence — for  example,  as  to  the 


336         INTELLIGIBILITY   OF  EACH   OTHEK'S  LANGUAGE. 

presence  of  danger  or  booty — « by  the  different  intensity  or 
qualities  of  the  odours  given  off.' 

In  some  cases  a  species — or  certain  individuals  thereof — 
learn  the  language,  or  to  understand  the  language,  of  other 
species,  genera,  or  groups. 

The  rapidity  of  the  acquisition  of  the  language  of  other 
species  varies  greatly,  as  does  also  necessarily  facility  of 
acquisition.  Thus  of  a  hen  that,  as  foster  mother,  brought 
up,  or  tried  to  bring  up,  three  orphaned  ferrets,  Romanes 
says  :  '  It  took  the  hen  one  day  to  learn  the  meaning  of  their 
cries  of  distress.'  But  he  could  '  not  say  that  the  young 
ferrets  ever  seemed  to  learn  the  meaning  of  the  hen's 
clucking.' 

The  acquisition  of  the  language  of  other  species  is  not 
confined  to,  though  it  is  best  illustrated  by,  the  imitation  of 
voice-sounds.  It  includes  the  whole  phenomena  of  mimicry 
—of 

1.  Man's  voice,  speech,  tone,  talk,  whistle,  words. 

2.  The  songs  of  a  considerable  number  of  birds. 

3.  The  calls  or  cries  of  various  animals,  made  use  of  for 
the  purposes  of  decoy  or  deception. 

The  mocking-bird  successfully  imitates  the  hen's  call, 
'and  the  cat's  mew  (Houzeau).  The  starling  mimics  man's 
voice,  the  cries  of  certain  quadrupeds,  and  the  song  of 
various  birds.  The  spotted  hyaena  counterfeits  the  bleat 
of  the  lamb. 

Acquired  songs  consist  frequently  of  combinations  of  the 
notes  of  different  species,  forming  a  medley  therefrom.  How- 
ever, in  acquiring  the  notes  or  songs  of  other  birds,  it 
occasionally  happens  that  a  species  or  individual  loses  its 
own — for  instance,  the  redbreast  (Houzeau). 

From  intimacy  of  association  with  them,  the  dog  soon 
comes  to  understand  the  language  of  several  different  genera 
and  species  of  other  animals.  For  instance,  it  learns  the 
signification  of  various  bird-calls,  including  those  of  poultry, 
and  takes  advantage  of  this  knowledge ;  its  action  or  be- 
haviour is  in  accordance  with  the  nature  and  significance  of 
each  cry  or  call  (Houzeau). 

The  language  of  blandishment  or  command  of  the  collie 


INTELLIGIBILITY  OF  EACH  OTHER'S  LANGUAGE.         337 

is  understood  both  bj  sheep  and  shepherd  (Watson).  The 
horse  learns  to  appreciate  the  cries  of  sporting  dogs — for 
example,  in  the  case  of  Houzeau's  horse,  who  understood 
the  cries  that  intimated  the  successful  driving  of  rabbits  to 
shelter,  and  that  constituted  a  sort  of  call  to  both  master 
and  horse  to  come  and  perform  their  share  of  the  task  in 
the  hunt.  Various  cries  used  as  danger  signals  are  under- 
stood by  animals  of  other  species  (Darwin).  Various 
animals  understand — have  probably  been  taught  by  sad 
experience  to  do  so — the  signals  of  sentinel  bees,  when,  for 
instance,  they  warn  off  intruders  (Figuier). 

A  case  is  given  in  *  Science  Gossip '  of  sparrows 
understanding  the  call — by  bark — of  a  terrier  to  be  fed  ;  and 
of  both  dog  and  sparrows  remembering  the  feeding  and  the 
call  winter  after  winter.  Ants  of  different  species  under- 
stand each  other's  signs  (Forel).  Intercommunication  of 
suggestions,  plans,  wants,  and  wishes  takes  place  between 
the  horse  and  cow  (Macaulay). 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

ANIMAL    MOTIVES    AND    THEIR    INTERPRETATION    BY    MAN. 

PIERQUIN,  Montaigne,  and  other  authors  have  pointed  out, 
and  dwelt  upon,  the  fallacies  connected  with  man's  interpre- 
tation of  the  feelings,  ideas,  or  thoughts  of  other  animals ; 
they  have  shown  the  fallibility  of  man's  inferences,  when  he 
endeavours  to  form  a  judgment  regarding  their  motives  or 
causes  of  action — their  reasons,  inducements,  or  impulses. 
We  are  constantly  reminded  that  we  do  not  know — and  that 
there  is  no  possibility  of  our  knowing — what  are,  for 
instance,  the  impressions  or  ideas  of  the  outer  world  formed 
by  animals. 

We  can  only  infer  that  similar  actions  in  other  animals 
are  determined  by  similar  motives  to  those  which  actuate 
man.  It  is  only  by  the  comparison  of  our  own  actions,  in 
relation  to  our  own  motives,  that  we  can  infer  what  are  the 
motives  of  other  animals  when  they  perform  similar  actions, 
or  are  placed  in  the  same  kind  of  circumstances.  But  man's 
inference  may  be  wrong  in  what  is  essentially  the  attribution 
of  human  motives  to  the  lower  animals ;  similar  actions  in 
other  animals  may  be  attributable  to  causes  or  motives  that 
are  really  dissimilar ;  in  short,  the  processes  of  feeling  and 
reasoning  in  other  animals  may  not  be  the  same  as  in  man. 
But,  it  appears  to  me,  that  a  bugbear  is  made  of  this 
theoretical  objection,  which  is  one  of  the  arguments  adduced 
in  support  of  the  opinion  of  those  who  deny  that  there  is 
any  community  of  character  between  the  '  reason '  of  man 
and  the  '  instinct '  of  the  lower  animal.  Precisely  the  same 
line  of  argument  might  be  adopted  in  regard  to  man  him- 
self; it  might  be  fitly  applied  to  the  comparison  of  the 


ANIMAL  MOTIVES.  339 

mental  condition  of  the  civilised  man  and  the  savage,  the 
scholar  and  the  boor,  or  to  the  human  mind  in  its  different 
phases  of  health  and  disease. 

There  is  insuperable  difficulty  in  discovering  or  realising 
the  animating  motives,  reasons,  causes,  or  spurs  of  action 
even  in  fellow-man.  None  of  us  can  project  our  own  minds 
or  personalities  into  those  of  our  brethren,  and  regard  events 
from  exactly  the  same  view-point.  Hence  the  impossibility 
of  the  mathematician  or  metaphysician  sympathising  with 
the  ideas  and  feelings,  or  understanding  the  mental  condition, 
of  the  child  or  savage,  idiot  or  lunatic,  of  the  criminal  and 
uneducated  classes  of  his  own  country. 

It  need  not,  therefore,  be  surprising  that  even  greater 
difficulty  should  be  encountered  in  realising  the  mental 
condition  of  other  animals,  differing  much  from  man  in 
structure,  habit,  and  surroundings.  But  the  difficulty  is  one 
that  is  materially  lessened  by  proper  study.  The  man  who 
investigates  the  subject  of  mind  upwards  instead  of  down- 
wards ;  who  begins  with  an  examination  of  the  simple 
before  he  encounters  the  complex ;  who  inquires  first  into 
the  dawn  or  rudiments  of  mind ;  who  analyses  its  elements 
in  the  lowest  organisms,  gradually  extending  his  observation 
to  the  higher,  and  ending  with  man  ;  who  keeps  ever  in 
mind  the  allowances  to  be  made  for  differences  in  structure 
and  habit  between  man  and  other  animals;  and  who, 
oblivious  of  man's  asserted  supremacy,  habitually  views 
animal  action  from  what  might  be  called  an  animal  platform, 
is  likely  to  arrive  at  honest  and  satisfactory  conclusions. 
Those  who  assert  that  the  motives  of  other  animals  are 
different  from  those  of  man  will  have  some  difficulty  in 
setting  forth  the  grounds  on  which  they  base  their  asser- 
tion. 

Assuming,  then,  that  the  attribution  of  human  motives 
to  the  lower  animals  is  both  legitimate  and  necessary,  there 
are  in  the  first  place  certain  motives  that  are  at  once  simple 
and  transparent — obvious  and  intelligible.  This  category 
includes,  for  instance —  , 

1.  Hunger  and  thirst ;  '  want '  in  all  its  forms  or  degrees. 

2.  Sexual  love. 


340  ANIMAL  MOTIVES  AND 

3.  Maternal  or  parental  affection. 

4.  Need   of  protection    or    assistance ;    necessity   of   all 
kinds. 

5.  Love  of  life. 

6.  Sense  of  danger. 

7.  Desire  for  pleasure   or    self-gratification,    including 
frequently  the  gratification  of  mere  momentary  desire. 

8.  Temptation. 

9.  Hope  or  anticipation  of  reward,  benefit,  or  attention. 

10.  Dread  of  pain,  fear  of  punishment  included. 

11.  Gratitude,  and  the  sense  of  benefit  or  advantage. 

12.  Love  of  society  or  companionship,  including  attach- 
ment to  man. 

13.  Love  of  approbation. 

We  experience  no  difficulty  in  understanding  how  hunger, 
or  maternal  love,  should  be  a  cause  or  source  of  daring  or 
boldness  even  in  timid  animals ;  how  gratitude  should  lead 
to  attachment  to  man ;  how  ill-usage  should  beget  antipathy 
or  fear,  and  these  feelings  lead  to  desertion  of  a  master  ; 
how  dread  of  punishment,  of  dismissal  from  a  master's  home, 
or  of  being  left  behind,  should  induce  the  dog  or  cat  to  seek 
safety  in  flight,  or  to  "resort  to  various  ingenious  devices  for 
circumventing  man ;  how  fear  of  capture  of  themselves,  or 
their  young,  should  cause  various  birds  to  have  recourse  to 
successful  ruses.  All  these  and  many  others  are  common 
and  easily  appreciable  motives  or  incitements  to  action  in  the 
dog  and  other  animals. 

It  has  here  to  be  remarked  that,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
same  motive  in  different  animals,  or  even  in  the  same 
animal  at  different  times,  may  produce  very  different  lines  of 
action — just  as  is  the  case  in  man ;  while,  on  the  other,  the 
same  course  of  action  or  behaviour  may  be  determined  by 
the  most  diverse  motives.  For  instance,  hunger  or  maternal 
love  gives  rise  to  a  great  diversity  of  conduct,  while  friend- 
ship for  man  is  determined  by  many  motives — both  selfish 
and  unselfish. 

It  is  equally  noteworthy  that,  as  in  man,  certain  motives 
or  feelings  are  apt  to  dominate  for  the  moment  over  others, 
the  result  being  determined  by  the  character  of  that  which 


THEIR   INTERPRETATION  BY  MAN.  341 

is  dominant.  Tims  weariness  of  life  may  overcome  in  old 
dogs  the  natural  love  of  life — or  the  tendency  in  all  animals 
to  self-preservation,  leading  occasionally  to  suicide ;  just  as 
maternal  affection  prevails  over  a  selfish — and  it  may  be 
added  prudent — regard  for  personal  safety  in  the  stork  or 
other  bird  that  perishes  with  its  young  rather  than  leave 
them  to  themselves  in  a  conflagration. 

As  ia  man,  in  a  large  number  of  cases,  motives  in  other 
animals  are  obviously  numerous,  conflicting,  and  complex ; 
and,  in  proportion  as  they  are  so,  it  becomes  difficult  to 
determine,  on  the  one  hand,  what  influences  are  present,  and 
on  the  other,  which  of  them  is  dominant.  It  is  in  this 
group  of  cases — of  conduct  determined  by  complexity  of 
motive — that  man  is  apt  to  err  most  in  his  interpretations  or 
analyses  of,  or  inferences  from,  animal  conduct. 

In  the  first  place,  the  apparent  motive,  or  motives,  may 
not  be  the  real  ones  ;  those  which  alone  appear  may  not  be 
the  only  ones.  Illustrations  of  this  proposition  are  so 
abundant  that  it  must  suffice  to  give  a  few  as  typical  of 
the  kind,  variety,  and  number  of  those  which  might  be 
adduced. 

When  a  dog  saves  the  life  of  its*  tipsy  master,  who  is 
perishing  in  the  snow,  by  laying  itself  upon  or  beside  its 
master's  body,  and  thereby  imparting  its  own  heat,  it  is 
obvious  that  the  incident  is  capable  of  various  explanations. 
The  motive  of  action  may  have  been  one  of  several,  or  there 
may  have  been  a  combination  of  several,  motives.  The 
explanation  most  apt  to  be  adopted — the  motive  most  likely 
to  be  assigned — in  such  a  case  is  that  which  is  least  credit- 
able to  the  lower,  and  least  derogatory  to  the  higher, 
animal.  It  is  suggested  probably  that  there  could  have 
been  no  idea  of  life-saving  on  the  part  of  the  dog  —  no 
realisation  of  its  master's  danger,  and  consequently  no  de- 
vising of  means  of  averting  it  or  protecting  him.  There 
was,  perhaps,  a  mere  selfish  consultation  of  its  own  comfort 
—even  a  stupid  ignorance  of  the  kind  and  amount  of  danger 
to  both  its  master  and  itself.  So  far  from  desiring  to  impart 
heat,  its  object,  it  may  be  alleged,  was  to  withdraw  it  in  its 
own  favour.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  conduct  was  pecu- 


342  ANIMAL  MOTIVES  AND 

liar  to  a  certain  dog  under  exceptional  conditions ;  the  result 
was  such  as  would,  or  at  least  might,  have  arisen  in  man 
from  a  realisation  of  danger,  a  knowledge  of  the  best 
available  means  of  avoiding  it,  and  an  unselfish  or  self- 
sacrificing  readiness  to  adopt  these  means. 

We  know,  moreover,  from  other  incidents  that  certain 
dogs  are  capable  of  the  highest  self-sacrifice ;  that  they 
realise  danger  not  only  as  it  threatens  themselves,  but  also 
when  it  approaches  those  in  whom  they  are  interested ;  that 
they  are  ingenious  in  devising  the  means  of  preventing  or 
removing  it.  Wo  equally  know  that  dogs,  like,  all  other 
animals,  have  a  keen  love  of  life — that  they  are  selfishly 
ready  to  take  all  necessary  means  for  self-preservation,  and 
that  some  are  too  selfish,  and  others  too  stupid,  to  place 
their  master's  interests  before  their  own. 

While,  therefore,  the  dog  that  saved  its  master  from 
death  by  cold  may  have  been  selfish  or  stupid,  it  is  at  least 
quite  as  legitimate  to  suppose  that  it  may  have  been 
sagacious  and  self-sacrificing — in  other  words,  that  it  was 
intentionally  and  consciously  its  master's  saviour.  That 
such  was  the  case  no  man  dare,  however,  affirm ;  that  it 
may  have  been  so  is  at  least  probable.  In  such  a  case  it  is 
only  permitted  to  us  to  suppose — not  to  know — whether  the 
dog  had  a  definite  object  or  motive,  and  what,  if  so,  that 
object  or  motive  was. 

Escapes  from  new  homes  are  common  in  certain  runaway 
dogs ;  desertions  from  their  masters'  houses  are  so  frequent 
that  such  animals  are  repeatedly  'lost.'  Here,  again,  any  one 
of  several  motive  causes  may  be  operative — such  as  affection 
for  a  former  master  or  home,  or  dislike  to  a  new  proprietor 
or  his  abode ;  or  the  animal  may  be  trained  to  abscond  by 
one  of  those  vendors  of  pet  dogs  so  common  in  London,  who 
in  this  way  sell  the  same  pug  or  poodle  over  and  over  again; 
or  the  action  may  be  attributable  to  love  of  liberty ;  or  it 
must  be  set  down  to  caprice,  or  relegated  to  the  category 
of  eccentricity,  individuality,  or  unexplained  phenomena. 
Which — or  whether  any — of  these  motives  or  causes  has 
determined  the  conduct  it  may  be  impossible  to  decide,  or 
even  to  guess. 


THEIR  INTERPRETATION  BY   MAN.  343 

In  certain  assemblies  of  Shetland  crows,  described  by 
Edmonstone  and  others,  we  have  the  facts  that — 

1.  The  assembly  is  general — birds  of  the  same  species 
flock  in  large  numbers  from  all  quarters  to  a  given  point ; 

2.  There   is   a  marked  difference   in  the  behaviour  of 
different  individuals  in  the  assembly,  including — 

3.  The  punishment,  or   at  least   maltreatment,  of  one 
individual  by  the  whole  body — 

and  man's  interpretation  is  that  in  such  an  incident  we  have 
a  criminal  trial  by  a  general  jury,  including  arraignment, 
evidence,  conviction,  condemnation,  and  the  execution  of 
capital  punishment.  All  this  may  have  been  embodied  in 
the  proceedings  of  the  assembly.  But  it  is  equally  improper 
to  assert  that  it  was  or  was  not  so.  The  unsatisfactoriness 
of  man's  speculations  as  to  the  cause,  or  nature,  of  the 
phenomena  of  animal  conduct  is  frequently,  however,  much 
more  obvious. 

The  pecking  to  death  of  the  wounded  by  birds — such  as 
certain  Indian  crows — is  not  necessarily  an  indication  of 
cruelty,  rather  than  of  humanity.  It  has  the  effect  at  least 
of  putting  an  end  to  an  animal's  torments — of  preventing 
death  by  slow  starvation,  or  its  falling  into  the  hands  of 
cruel  enemies;  while  it  also  effectually  puts  an  end,  however, 
to  all  chance  of  its  recovery. 

When  the  American  goatsucker  and  other  birds  change 
their  nest  on  any  interference  with  their  eggs,  the  supposed 
motive  may  be  prudence,  precaution,  fear  of  danger  and  of 
loss  of  eggs ;  but  much  more  probably  the  action  must  be 
referred  for  its  causation  to  the  category  of  puerperal, 
morbid  mental  phenomena. 

In  the  mockery  or  mimicry  of  birds  there  may,  or  may 
not,  be  an  intention  to  annoy;  but  it  is  not  easy — to  say  the 
least — to  determine  in  what  cases  such  a  feeling  or  desire  is 
present  or  absent.  That  it  is  frequently  present  is  pointed 
out  in  the  chapter  on  '  Practical  Jokes.' 

What  may  be  the  motive,  feeling,  or  idea  of  the  dog  that 
day  after  day,  week  after  week,  or  even  year  after  year, 
couches  upon  its  master's  grave  —  as  in  the  case  of  the 
famous  '  Greyfriars  Bobby,'  of  Edinburgh  —  is  a  question 
abundantly  open  to  conjecture. 


344  ANIMAL  MOTIVES  AND 

Mutual  assistance  may  or  may  not  involve  desire  or 
intention  to  assist — for  instance,  in — 

1.  Birds  that  accompany  the  African  buffalo,  rhinoceros, 
and  crocodile. 

2.  Birds  that  warn  man  or  other  animals  of  danger. 

3.  Birds — such  as  the  African  honey-guide — that  point 
or  lead  the  way  to  honey  stores. 

So  far  from  there  being  in  such  cases  any  moral  merit,  the 
ruling  motive  or  idea  may  be  self-interest.  In  the  case  of 
the  African  honey-guide  its  object  is  apparently  selfish; 
for  Livingstone  tells  us l  that  it  flies  in  front  of  the  hunter 
only  till  he  arrives  at  the  spot  where  the  bees'  nest  exists, 
waits  till  he  takes  the  honey,  and  then  *  feeds  on  the 
broken  morsels  of  comb  which  fall  to  its  share.'  But  even 
here  distinction  may  have  to  be  drawn  between  real  and 
apparent  selfishness. 

There  may  be  a  selfish  reason — real  or  apparent — for 
humanity,  as  in  the  case  of  -ants  feeding  and  kindly  treat- 
ing as  friends — not  as  slaves — their  milk  cattle,  plant  lice 
(Aphides)  or  beetles  (species  of  Claviger).  Various  authors 
have  pointed  out  that  Aphides  are  to  ants — their  captors, 
keepers,  and  masters — not  mere  prisoners  of  war ;  they  are 
domesticated  and  happy.  Whether  or  not  the  motive  or 
purpose  be  a  selfish  one — an  act  of,  or  prompted  by,  self- 
interest — the  procedure  itself  is  obviously  a  wise,  prudent, 
and  commendable  policy. 

When  harvesting  ants  nip  off  the  germinating  radicles 
of  seeds  prior  to  their  storage,  the  possible  result  is  a  malt- 
ing of  the  grain  from  the  production  of  sugar;  but  it  does 
not  follow  that  the  animals  are  aware  of  the  fact  that 
malting  may  or  will  occur,  and  that  their  destruction  of  the 
radicles  has  this  end  in  view.  They  must  be  aware,  how- 
ever, of  the  necessity  for  destroying  the  radicle,  and  for 
thorough  drying  of  the  seeds  in  order  to  the  proper  preser- 
vation of  the  grain  in  their  granaries. 

An  animal  regarding  itself  for  the  first  time  in  a  mirror 
is  less  likely  to  be  actuated  by  self-admiration  than  by  mere 
surprise  or  wonder;  or  the  reason  may  be  curiosity  or 
1  In  his  '  Last  Journals,'  vol.  i.  p.  164. 


THEIR  INTERPRETATION   BY  MAN.  345 

jealousy  of  an  imaginary  rival  (Darwin).  Nor  is  the  strut 
of  the  peacock  or  turkey  cock  necessarily  an  indication  of 
vanity  or  pride. 

Pierquin  ascribes  the  '  running  amok '  of  the  '  rogue  ' 
elephant  to  a  thirst  for  vengeance.  But  if  he  is  correct  in 
this  supposition,  the  animal  commits  a  mistake  in  directing 
its  enmity  against  man,  seeing  that  its  banishment  is  at 
the  hands  of  its  own  species.  It  may  be,  however,  in  the 
elephant,  as  in  man,  that  vengeance  is  frequently  vicarious, 
being  inflicted  on  the  weak,  defenceless,  and  innocent  when 
it  cannot  be  directed  successfully  against  the  strong,  powerful, 
and  guilty. 

The  subject  of  motive,  or  object,  is  further,  though 
casually,  discussed  in  other  chapters,  such  as  that  on 
'  Deception.' 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

UNDERSTANDING   OP   HUMAN   LANGUAGE. 

As  known  to  the  lower  animals,  the  language  of  man  does 
not  consist  of  mere 

1.  Words,  whether  singly,  or  in  combination,  as — 

2.  Sentences  or  phrases  in  conversation ;  but  it  includes 
his — 

3.  Looks  —  facial   expression,  countenance-changes,  the 
character  of  his  eye. 

4.  Actions  or  movements,  with  gesture  and  gesticulations, 
attitude,  manner,  habits  and  observances,  costume  and  its 
changes. 

5.  Natural  voice-sounds,  and  their  varied  tones  or  into- 
nations. 

6.  Artificial — musical  or  other — sounds,  such  as  those 
made  upon  or  by  the  bell,  gong,  horn,  whistle,  pipe,  bagpipe, 
lute,  drum,  or  bugle. 

By  dint  of  observation  and  reflection,  certain  dogs  — 
notably  the  shepherds'  dogs  (or  collies)  of  Scotland— that 
live  in  intimate  association  with  their  masters,  that  are 
man's  fireside  friends  or  companions,  as  well  as  his  col- 
leagues in  work — perhaps  even  his  accomplices  in  crime — 
teach  themselves,  or  are  taught  by  him,  to  understand  and 
appreciate  the  meaning  or  significance  of  man's  various  modes 
of  expression.  They  understand,  for  instance,  his 

1.  Conversation — comments  or  remarks — at   least  when 
they  themselves  are  spoken  of. 

2.  Proper  names — of  persons,  places,  and  things,  including 
particularly  their   own  names,  the  names   of  members  of 
human  households,  and  of  household  goods. 

3.  Calls — by  voice  or  by  various  musical  instruments. 


UNDERSTANDING   OF  HUMAN  LANGUAGE.  347 

4.  Signals — of  eye,  look,  action,  including  those  which 
are  called  secret — which  are  preconcerted  by  and  between, 
and  understood  only  to,  the  animal  and  its  master. 

5.  Hints — verbal  or  other. 

6.  Instructions  or  directions,  orders   or   commands,  in- 
cluding explanations  and  suggestions — verbal  or  other. 

7.  Preparations  for  food,  punishment,  exercise,  going  to 
church. 

8.  Games  and  sports. 

9.  Negatives  and  affirmatives — refusal  and  permission — 
and  the  various  modes  of  expressing  them,  including  the 
head-nod  and  shake. 

10.  Praise  and  blame,  and  their  degrees,  including  en- 
couragement, and  the  reverse — reproach  or  condemnation. 

11.  Pleasure  or  gratification,  and  their  opposites — anger 
or  displeasure. 

12.  Esteem  and  contempt. 

13.  Tempers,  moods,  or  humours. 

14.  Wishes,  wants,  or  desires. 

15.  Intentions,  designs,  purposes,  aims,  objects,  plans. 

16.  Invitations  and  proposals. 

17.  Promises. 

18.  Threats  or  menaces. 

19.  Oaths  and  abuse. 

20.  Irony,  sarcasm,  or  sneers. 

21.  Fun  and  earnest — pretence  and  reality. 

22.  News. 

23.  Emotions  or  feelings — such  as  grief;  pity,  love. 
There  would  even  appear  to  be  a  certain  kind  or  degree  of 

24.  Divination  or  prescience  of  man's  very  thoughts  even, 
when  unexpressed  in  any  way,  or  at  least  not  voluntarily 
and  consciously  expressed. 

Certain  dogs  form  the  most  correct  and  shrewd  guesses 
at  what  man  is  thinking  of  or  contemplating — for  instance, 
when  it  refers  to  their  probable  or  possible  punishment  for 
misdemeanour.  But  in  such  cases  the  result  depends  no 
doubt  on  keenness  of  observation,  long  experience,  sagacious 
reflection,  rapid  inference,  with  a  vivid  sense  of  guilt  and  of 
personal  interest  in  results. 


348  UNDEKSTANDING   OF  HUMAN  LANGUAGE. 

That  domestic  animals  know  the  meaning  of  the  words, 
or  combinations  thereof,  embodied  in  man's  orders  is  familiar, 
as  a  matter  of  daily  experience,  to  every  master  or  mistress 
of  household  pets,  to  every  farmer  and  farm  servant,  ostler 
and  jockey,  sportsman  or  huntsman,  shepherd  or  ploughman, 
carter  or  waggoner,  cabdriver,  coachman,  or  postilion,  dog- 
breaker  and  horse-trainer.  Illustrations  are  abundant  in 
every  farmyard,  stable,  or  byre,  on  every  country  road,  in 
every  town  street,  and  in  the  homes,  rich  and  poor,  of  the 
great  majority  of  the  population  of  all  civilised  countries. 
But  notwithstanding  the  familiarity  of  the  fact  that  the  dog, 
horse,  ass,  elephant,  fowl,  cattle,  parrot,  and  hosts  of  other 
animals  understand,  so  as  to  obey,  man's  verbal  commands, 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  little  or  no  consideration  is 
given  to  the  number  and  variety  of  the  words  and  phrases 
that  are  embodied  in  man's  commonest  orders  to  servant 
animals. 

In  certain  cases  there  may  be  a  knowledge  of  the 
meaning  of  each  individual  word  used  in  man's  conversa- 
tion, but,  more  generally  and  probably,  his  dog  gathers 
only  the  general  purport  or  scope  of  his  remarks. 

In  either  case  not  only  is  there  a  correct  interpretation 
of  man's  meaning,  but  the  animal  acts  appropriately  upon 
its  interpretation  —  by  obeying  his  commands,  complying 
with  his  requests,  answering  his  queries,  avoiding  danger, 
attending  at  meals,  showing  sympathy,  or  fear,  or  other 
responsive  emotions,  supplying  his  wants,  accepting  his 
invitations  or  promises,  adopting  his  suggestions,  and  so  on. 

Nor  is  the  dog  the  only  animal  which  thus  understands 
man's  language  and  is  guided  by  it.  The  horse,  cat,  rein- 
deer, elephant,  sheep,  cattle  and  goats,  beaver,  Barbary  and 
other  apes,  trained  and  other  monkeys,  orang  and  chim- 
panzee, common  seal,  hedgehog,  mouse,  sea  bear,  dolphin, 
various  fish,  falcon,  Chinese  ducks,  Chinese  fishing  cormorants, 
parrots,  and  other  birds,  and  in  general  all  tamed  and 
domestic  animals,  understand  one  or  more  of  the  modes  by 
which  man  expresses  his  ideas,  wishes,  or  commands,  as 
well  as  these  ideas,  wishes  or  commands  themselves,  how- 
ever expressed.  All  of  them,  for  instance,  understand  his 


UNDERSTANDING  OF  HUMAN  LANGUAGE.  349 

various  calls  to  them  to  attend  food-supply,  and  many  of 
them  know  their  own  proper  names.  The  military  horse 
knows  the  significance  of  the  various  drum  and  bugle  calls, 
and  acts  accordingly.  The  fireman's  dog  understands  the 
fire  alarm,  and  its  knowledge  of  the  meaning  of  such  a 
signal  leads  on  its  part  to  the  immediate  and  appropriate 
action  of  awakening  the  fire  brigade  (Houzeau). 

Many  animals,  moreover,  not  only  understand  man's 
questions,  but  reply  to  them  in  various  ways.  The  sea  bear 
of  the  London  Zoological  Gardens  understands  its  keeper's 
verbal  language,  and  replies  to  his  verbal  questions  by 
various  sounds  and  gestures.  The  performing  dog  picks 
out  certain  cards  containing,  in  printed  letters,  appropriate 
replies  to  the  verbal  queries  of  its  master,  as  if  it  had  read 
the  printed  answer  before  using  it. 

That  form  of  man's  language  which  is  most  generally 
understood  by  the  greatest  diversity  of  genera  and  species 
of  other  animals  is  probably  his  call,  which  is  usually 
associated,  directly  or  indirectly,  with  food  supply  for  the 
day  or  shelter  provision  for  the  night.  Not  only,  therefore, 
is  the  call  readily  understood — whether  it  is  verbal  or  vocal, 
by  the  aid  of  sonorous  instruments  or  otherwise — but  it  is 
promptly  obeyed.  Even  the  mouse  ('  Animal  World '),  the 
fishing  cormorant  of  China  (Fennel),  and  certain  fish  obey 
man's  summons  by  mouth,  whistle  or  otherwise. 

Many  domestic  animals  know  their  own  names  —  the 
names,  that  is,  attached  to  them  by  man  and  by  which  he  is 
in  the  habit  of  calling  them.  Their  own  name  is  indeed 
the  first  word  usually  to  which  a  definite  idea  is  attached, 
whether  by  the  child  or  young  animal  (Houzeau) . 

This  is  therefore  man's  first  lesson  to  both — the  bestowal 
of  a  personal  or  distinctive  appellation.  Such  animals  as 
the  dog,  horse,  cat,  and  parrot,  which  live  in  more  or  less 
intimate  association  with  man,  very  soon  come  to  learn 
their  own  names,  with  their  uses  or  applications  by  man. 
Eastern  sheep  answer  to  their  names  or  to  the  calls  of  their 
shepherd,  whose  voice  they  distinguish  from  that  of  all 
other  men.  Similar  phenomena  occur  in  Greece  (Hartley). 
This  ordering  or  calling  sheep  by  name  is  both  an  ancient 


350  UNDERSTANDING   OF  HUMAN  LANGUAGE. 

(Theocritus)  and  a  modern  (Wood)  practice.  Various  fish 
kept  in  pleasure-ponds  in  gentlemen's  demesnes  also  know 
their  own  master's  voice  or  call,  and  sometimes  even  footfall 
or  footstep,  from  those  of  all  other  individuals.  They  attend 
to  the  one  and  are  indifferent  to  the  other.  The  mention 
of  a  dog's  name  in  ordinary  conversation  is  frequently 
sufficient  to  rouse  it  at  once  from  sleep  (Houzeau).  It  has 
even  been  alleged  that  some  dogs  know  man's  names  for 
their  own  sex — dog  or  bitch — and  associate  the  proper  idea 
with  the  said  names  or  words  (Houzeau).  It  is  further  of 
interest  to  note  that  dogs  and  other  animals  answer  to  their 
names  when  man's  names  are  imitated  by  such  birds  as  the 
parrot  and  raven.  These  birds  know  individual  dogs  by 
sight,  and  call  them  properly  by  their  names,  imitating  man 
so  successfully  as  to  deceive  the  higher  animals  (Low) — 
both  man  and  dog. 

The  number  of  animals  that  know  the  names  of  the  dif- 
ferent members  of  a  human  household,  and  of  the  chief 
articles  of  domestic  use,  is  much  more  limited.  This  sort  of 
intelligence  is  not  uncommon,  however,  in  the  dog ;  and  it 
is  occasionally  exhibited  even  by  the  cat.  Thus  we  are  told 
of  a  cat  that  knew  the  name  of  each  member  of  a  family,  and 
the  particular  seats  of  each  at  table.  If  asked  where  is 
So-and-so — then  absent — she  would  look  at  the  vacant  seat, 
then  at  the  speaker,  and  if  told  to  fetch  him  or  her,  '  she 
would  trot  upstairs,  take  the  handle  of  the  door  between  her 
paws,  put  her  mouth  to  the  keyhole,  mew  and  wait  to  be  let 
in,'  to  some  particular  room,  containing  the  absentee  (Clara 
Eossiter) . 

Certain  dogs  know  not  only  when  they  are  spoken  to,  but 
when  spoken  of  casually  in  the  conversation  of  their  masters 
— conversation  sometimes  experimentally  intended — but  in 
other  cases  as  certainly  not  intended — for  dogs'  ears.  In  both 
cases  the  result  has  been  the  same  as  regards  the  prompt  and 
appropriate  action  of  the  animals.  They  are  quite  aware 
when  they  become  the  subject  of  man's  conversation  (Wat- 
son), and  are  naturally  on  such  occasions  all  ear  and  atten- 
tion, though  the  old  adage  too  frequently  holds  good  that 
listeners — unintended  listeners,  that  is — are  apt  to  hear 


UNDERSTANDING  OF  HUMAN  LANGUAGE.  351 

nothing  good  about  themselves.  Hogg,  the  Ettrick  shepherd, 
who  studied  so  intelligently  and  lovingly  the  character,  in- 
tellectual and  moral,  of  his  companion  and  servant  collies, 
gives  several  striking  illustrations  of  the  correct  interpre- 
tation of  their  master's  remarks  made  in  conversation  with 
his  wife,  family,  or  friends. 

'  If  one  calls  out,  for  instance,  that  the  cows  are  in  the 
corn  or  the  hens  in  the  garden,  the  house  collie  needs  no 
other  hint,  but  runs  and  turns  them  out.'  Hector,  over- 
hearing its  master  propose  leaving  it  behind  on  a  journey, 
went  off  alone  and  in  advance,  meeting  its  master  at  his 
destination.  Sirrah,  hearing  him  lament  the  loss  of  three 
flocks  of  lambs,  without  order  set  off  in  quest  of  them,  and 
in  the  darkness  of  night  collected  the  whole  700.  Another 
family  dog  (bitch),  on  overhearing  the  day  of  her  master's 
home-coming  mentioned,  never  failed  to  go  to  meet  him. 
*  She  could  only  know  of  his  home-coming  by  hearing  it  men- 
tioned in  the  family*  (Macaulay). 

Further  illustrations  are  to  be  found  in  the  numerous 
cases  of  the  sudden,  temporary,  or  permanent  disappearance 
of  sporting  or  other  dogs  that  have  accidentally — uninten- 
tionally as  regards  man — overheard  that — 

1.  They  were  not  to  accompany  a  master  or  mistress  to 
church,  to  walk,  or  to  sport ; 

2.  They  were  to  be    destroyed  by   shot,   drowning,   or 
poison ; 

3.  They  were  to  be  punished  for  some  misdemeanour — 
as  well  as  in  the  shame  shown  by  their   retirement  from 
a  room  on  hearing  a  discreditable  anecdote  of  themselves 
narrated  (Scott). 

The  parrot,  too,  not  only  recognises  its  own  name,  both 
when  spoken  of  and  spoken  to,  but  it  understands  agreeable 
or  disagreeable,  favourable  or  unfavourable,  commendatory 
or  disparaging  news  or  comments,  communicated  or  made  in 
its  presence  (Houzeau).  Like  the  dog,  also,  it  appreciates 
the  significance  of  the  tone  of  voice,  the  look,  or  the  gesture 
of  its  human  visitors. 

A  single  word  uttered,  and  especially  if  emphatically  so  in 
the  course  of  man's  conversation,  from  the  train  of  associa- 
24 


352  UNDERSTANDING  OF  HUMAN  LANGUAGE. 

tions  it  instantly  awakens,  sometimes  produces  an  effect  that 
appears,  by  reason  of  its  suddenness,  almost  magical.  Thus 
the  mention  of  the  mere  word  '  rat '  to  a  true,  professional 
rat-catching  terrier  sets  it  on  the  qui  vive  at  once ;  it  becomes 
on  the  instant  all  alive  and  alert,  its  tail  vibrating  with  the 
joys  or  excitements  of  anticipation.  Again,  of  a  certain 
dog  that  very  much  disliked  cooked  fowl  as  an  article  of 
dinner  diet,  its  master  writes,  'If  we  spoke  of  it  in  his  hear- 
ing we  missed  him  for  hours,5  and  it  was  subsequently  found 
that  he  went  on  such  occasions  for  his  dinner  to  the  house  of 
some  intimate  friends  of  the  family,  who,  when  they  saw 
the  dog,  '  knew  at  once  what  the  fare  with  us  would  be  ' 
('Animal  World'). 

The  dog  becomes  also  a  very  keen  and  successful  student 
of  man's  physiognomy.  It  carefully  scans  or  examines  his 
countenance  in  order  to  the  detection  of  its  earliest  clouds 
or  sunshine.  If  it  sees  its  master's  face  covered  with 
frowns,  it  infers  anger  and  expects  kicks — an  inference  and 
anticipation  that  lead  it  quietly  to  get  out  of  the  way.  If, 
on  the  other  hand,  it  meets  smiles  or  laughs,  it  greets  its 
master  joyously  in  its  own  way,  reflecting  and  reciprocating 
his  good  humour.  Should  tears  unexpectedly  appear,  it 
offers  sympathy  and  condolence  in  forms  as  eloquent  and 
unmistakable  as  man  himself  can  use  to  brother  man.  In 
coming  by  such  means  to  a  conclusion  how  far  it  has  reason 
to  fear  or  to  trust  man,  the  dog  is  very  mucli  on  a  footing 
with  the  child  (Darwin).  It  may  be  said  to  read  equally 
well  its  master's  smiles  and  frowns,  laughter  and  tears,  the 
language  of  his  eye,  lips,  and  head-movements — a  reading 
that  implies  a  wonderfully  just  estimate  of  man's  temper, 
mood,  or  feeling. 

'  Performing '  dogs,  or  other  specially  trained  animals, 
understand  and  act  upon  signs  or  signals  from  their  masters, 
which  pass  unnoticed  by  on-lookers.  Thus  smuggling  dogs 
understand  the  significance  of  man's  danger  signals;  and  ap- 
propriate action  follows  in  the  form,  for  instance,  of  flight  or 
concealment  ('  Percy  Anecdotes'). 

Other  intelligent  dogs,  such  as  the  sheap-stealing  collie 
and  the  poodle,  can  be  taught  to  execute  man's  secret  orders, 


UNDERSTANDING  OF  HUMAN  LANGUAGE.  353 

and  so  bamboozle  or  deceive  on-lookers,  or  escape  the  obser- 
vation of  enemies  or  obstructives  ('  Percy  Anecdotes ').  All 
performing  animals  execute  their  performances  mainly  in 
obedience  to  man's  signs  or  orders,  whether  open  and  public, 
understood  by  the  audience  and  spectators — or  secret  and 
intelligible  only  to  the  performers  and  their  trainer. 

In  some  cases,  however,  in  course  of  time  there  arises  a 
certain  spontaneity  of  action  in  such  performances ;  for  in- 
stance, in  the  case  of  the  beggar's  dog  that  goes  forth  alone 
in  its  master's  service  (Grenville  Murray).  Decoy  elephants 
obey  a  single  word  or  sign  from  their  keeper,  including  sig- 
nals that  are  secret,  in  the  sense  that  they  are  unobserved  or 
not  understood  by  on-lookers  (Watson). 

But  words  as  well  as  signs  may'  be  unintelligible  to  an 
audience,  and  yet  quite  intelligible  to  and  by  a  performing 
animal  and  its  master.  For  co-operation  in  theatrical  and 
other  public  performances  the  words  of  a  foreign  tongue  are 
sometimes  quite  as  useful  and  quite  as  much  employed  as 
non-vocal  signs  or  signals  of  any  kind.  Hence  the  advan- 
tage of  a  certain  knowledge  of  foreign  languages,  especially 
French  and  German,  to  certain  horses  and  dogs  and  their 
masters. 

Frost  tells  us  that  '  circus  horses  are  always  spoken  to  in 
the  ring  in  French;'  and  he  mentions  one  so  addressed  by  New- 
some,  the  circus  proprietor,  that  at  once  understood  his  words 
and  acted  upon  his  verbal  hints  or  suggestions — for  instance, 
in  the  discovery  of  a  hidden  handkerchief.  Again,  smug- 
glers' dogs  on  the  frontiers  of  France  and  Germany  require 
to  know,  and  do  know,  both  French  and  German  (Watson) — 
that  is  to  say,  they  acquire  linguistic  knowledge  comparable 
to  the  kind  and  amount  thereof  that  a  tourist  must  get  up 
in  order  to  the  supply  of  his  physical  wants  and  the  prose- 
cution of  his  object — travel. 

With  or  without  words,  sometimes  simply  from  seeing 
what  man  is  doing,  the  dog  and  other  animals  arrive  rapidly 
at  very  correct  conclusions  as  to  his  object  or  purpose,  and 
they  co-operate,  or  make  efforts  at  frustration,  as  a  sense  of 
their  own  or  of  his  interests  may  prompt.  Sporting  dogs  un- 
derstand their  master's  plan  and  purpose  in  shooting  game, 


354  UNDERSTANDING   OF  HUMAN  LANGUAGE. 

and  they  enter  into  the  spirit  of  his  sport.  In  the  same  way 
other  dogs  enjoy  man's  games  or  children's  romps,  intelli- 
gently taking  their  proper  parts,  and  usually  when  they  do 
so  take  part,  showing  both  to  man  and  child  excellent  exam- 
ples of  good  humour  and  control  over  their  tempers,  and  of 
not  permitting  jest  to  run  into  earnest.  There  is  apprecia- 
tion of  man's  object  even  in  chickens,  according  to  Houzeau. 

The  working  elephant  of  India  requires  only  to  be  shown 
or  told  what  man  wants,  has  but  to  get  a  clear  idea  of  man's 
object  in  doing  a  certain  work,  and  of  the  mode  in  which  it 
should  be  done,  in  order  to  execute  the  said  work  intelli- 
gently. Its  mahout  or  cornac — otherwise  keeper  or  driver 
— gives  the  necessary  explanations  in  a  mixed  language,  that 
is  quite  intelligible  to  the  animal,  composed  partly  of  words, 
partly  of  gestures  (Houzeau). 

We  read,  moreover,  of  dogs  accepting  man's  verbal  invi- 
tations to  dinner,  and  punctually  keeping  their  engagements 
(Pierquin),  and  of.  Barbary  apes  also  begging  or  fishing  for 
invitations,  just  as  children  do  (Cassell). 

Ability  to  understand  man's  language  implies — 

1.  A  natural  aptitude  to  learn  it ;  and — 

2.  A  special  study  of  it. 

And  this  aptitude  and  study,  again,  involve  a  high  de- 
gree of  intelligence,  the  power  of  close  and  keen,  long  and 
careful  observation,  the  faculty  of  reflection,  and  ability  to 
draw  inferences  from  the  facts  of  observation. 

Per  contra,  in  order  to  the  understanding  by  man  of  ani- 
mal language,  a  similar  aptitude  and  study,  similar  mental 
qualities  are  required.  And  just  in  proportion  as  he  pos- 
sesses such  an  aptitude,  and  devotes  to  the  study  in  question 
a  similar  amount  of  patience  and  perseverance,  will  be  the 
nature  and  degree  of  the  knowledge  of  animal  language 
which  he  acquires.  Observation,  experience,  practice, 
lead  man  to  read  the  meaning  of  the  looks,  gestures,  cries, 
or  other  forms  of  expression  in  the  lower  animals,  just  as 
they  do  his.  Belt  could  tell,  from  its  cries  and  without  see- 
ing it,  whether  and  when  a  certain  tame  cebus  monkey  was 
hungry,  eating,  frightened,  or  menacing.  The  shepherd  and 
sportsman  understand  the  language  of  their  dogs.  Man 


UNDEKSTANDING   OF  HUMAN  LANGUAGE.  355 

accepts,  by  acting  upon,  the  danger  signal  of  the  dog  and 
many  other  animals.  According  to  De  la  Brosse,  two  West 
African  chimpanzees  on  a  voyage,  'at  table,  when  they 
wanted  anything  ....  easily  made  themselves  understood 
to  the  cabin  boy.'  The  signal  barks  of  their  dogs,  and  the 
significance  of  these  various  signals  or  barks,  are  known  only 
to  the  smuggler  or  brigand,  or  master,  who  has  learned  their 
significance  by  careful  study  (Watson). 

One  of  the  results  of  this  is  that  men  and  other  animals 
that  study  each  other's  language  arrive,  in  course  of  time,  at 
such  a  kind  and  degree  of  mutual  understanding  as  is  of  im- 
portance to  both  in  their  daily  intercourse.  For  instance, 
man  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  dog,  horse,  elephant,  monkey, 
and,  as  a  general  rule,  all  *  performing'  and  domestic  animals 
on  the  other,  have  a  common  understanding,  which  again 
involves  what  are  really  various  forms  of  conversation,  not 
necessarily  in  either  party  by  voice  or  by  sound.  Hogg, 
in  one  of  his  tales — '  A  Shepherd's  Wedding  '—describes  the 
shepherd,  accompanied  by  his  two  collies,  at  tea  in  a  minis- 
ter's manse  parlour.  *  He  conversed  with  his  dogs  in  the 
same  manner  as  he  did  with  any  of  the  other  guests.  Nor 
did  the  former  ever  seem  to  misunderstand  him,  unless  in  his 
unprecedented  and  illiberal  attempt  to  expel  them  from  thje 
company,'  the  two  animals  never  before  having  lost  sight  of 
their  master,  in-doors  or  out. 

One  of  the  many  advantages  of  this  mutual  understand- 
ing between  a  horse  and  its  rider  is  that  the  animal,  accus- 
tomed to  and  fond  of  a  particular  master,  learns  to  know  the 
meaning  of  his  least  movement — of  the  inclination  even  of  his 
body — and  it  acts  accordingly,  without  word,  whip,  or  spur. 

Sir  Walter  Scott  was  of  opinion  that  the  intercommunica- 
tion of  thought  between  man  and  the  dog  is  capable  of  great 
improvement,  a  belief  in  which  I  heartily  share.  The  sub- 
ject, however,  belongs  more  properly  to  the  chapters  on 
'  Education.' 

The  dog  at  least  distinguishes  between  man's  pretence 
and  reality,  or  seriousness,  whether  of  intention  or  action 
(Watson) ;  it  knows  what  is  jest  and  what  earnest.  Not  only 
does  it  understand  man's  gestured  threat,  but — by  rapid  re- 


356  UNDERSTANDING  OF  HUMAN  LANGUAGE. 

flection  apparently — it  distinguishes  that  which  can  be 
carried  out  from  that  which  is  impotent.  And  its  conduct 
is  in  accordance  with  its  belief.  For  instance,  when  man 
pretends  to  throw  a  stone  at  a  dog  in  a  locality  where  the 
animal  knows  that  there  are  no  stones  to  be  thrown,  such  a 
locality  as  an  Irish  bog  or  a  stretch  of  sandy  coast — it  gives 
itself  no  concern  about  the  futile  threat,  does  not  get  rapidly 
out  of  man's  range,  as  it  would  do  under  other  circumstances 
(Houzeau). 


ADAPTIYENESS. 

CHAPTER   XX. 

GENEBAL   ADAPTIVENESS. 

INSTANCES  or  illustrations  are  simply  innumerable  in  the 
lower  animals  of  their  power  or  faculty  of  adaptation  to  cir- 
cumstances ;  of  accommodation  to  new,  unforeseen,  accidental, 
unusual,  or  exceptional  conditions ;  of  appropriateness  of  be- 
haviour to  time  and  place ;  of  the  use  of  proper  and  the  best 
means  to  an  end;  of  spontaneous  modification  of  action. 
This  adaptability — the  range  of  which  is  as  great  as  its  cha- 
racter is  sometimes  remarkable — this  determination  of  action 
by  external  conditions,  which  may  readily  be  artificially  pro- 
duced for  experimental  purposes  by  man,  implies  or  includes 
the  operation  of  a  number  of  important  mental  qualities  or 
aptitudes,  such  as  the  following  : — 

1.  Ingenuity,  contrivance,  cleverness,  or  inventiveness  in 
device  or  design,  in  the  variation  of  the  means  of  accomplish- 
ing an  object,  including  fertility  of  resource,  which  again 
involves  originality,  both  in  conception  and  execution. 

2.  Definite  purpose,  object,  aim — with  intention,  delibera- 
tion, firmness,  resolution,  perseverance,  and  force  of  will  to 
attain  it. 

3.  Capability   of    surveying   and   comparing,   one   with 
another,  each  of  a  series  of  diverse  means,  and  of  judging 
and  selecting  the  most  suitable. 


358  GENEEAL  ADAPTIVENESS. 

4.  SHU,  dexterity,  adroitness,  expertness,  address  in  em- 
ploying or  adapting  means. 

5.  Profiting  by  experience ;  the  acquisition  of  knowledge — 
much  of  it  experimental — as  has  been  pointed  out  in  another 
chapter. 

6.  Shaping  a  definite  course  or  plan  of  action. 

7.  Seizure   of  opportunity,  including  vigilance  and  pa- 
tience, watching  and  waiting  for  it,  with  discrimination  in 
judging  of  its  suitability. 

8.  Use  of  strategy,  involving  cunning  and  artifice,  or  de- 
ception. 

9.  Actuation  by  motive. 

10.  Caution  and  discretion. 

11.  Balancing  of  probabilities,  implying  thought  or  re- 
flection, and  frequently  hesitancy  or  doubt. 

12.  Decision  and  courage,  including  promptitude  in  ac- 
tion. 

13.  Self-possession  and  self-control. 

14.  Association  of  ideas. 

15.  Knowledge  of  the  relation  of  cause  and  effect,  in- 
cluding an  appreciation  of  consequences. 

16.  Knowledge  and  use  of  advantage,  natural  or  artificial, 
fair  or  unfair. 

17.  Providence,   prudence,   foresight — including   certain 
kinds  of  forecasting  future  events  or  conditions. 

18.  Perception  or  feeling  of  necessity. 

The  adaptation  of  means  to  an  end;  the  variation  of  these 
means  with  the  nature  of  the  end,  or  with  the  difficulty  of 
attaining  it;  and  the  manifold  mental  qualities  that  are 
called  into  operation  by  such  adaptation  and  variation,  are 
all  illustrated  by  the  following  common  phenomena  of  animal 
life  or  habit : — 

1.  The  capture  and  use  of  slaves  or  servants,  or  other 
forms  of  subjection  of  the  weak  to  the  use  of  the  strong. 

2.  The  wars  of  certain  animals — whatever  be  their  object 
— including  the  arrangements  both  for  defence  and  attack. 

3.  The  overcoming  of  obstacles  or  difficulties,  whatever 
be  their  nature. 

4.  The   arrangements   made   for   cleanliness,  safety,  and 


GENEEAL  ADAPTIVENESS.  359 

« 

salubrity  of  person  or  dwelling,  including  ventilation  and 
elevation,  and  the  removal  of  refuse. 

5.  The  obtaining  and  use  of  food. 

6.  The  construction  of  dwellings,  including  the  selection 
of  material. 

7.  The  pursuit,  capture,  and  disposal  of  pr&y. 

8.  Mutual  assistance  of  all  kinds. 

9.  Avoidance  of  disagreeables  in  work,  duty,  or  other- 
wise ;  or  of  obstacles,  enemies,  or  dangers. 

10.  Use  of  tools,  instruments,  or  weapons — natural  and 
artificial,  including  the  use  of  baits  and  of  money — all  as 
pointed  out  in  a  special  chapter  thereanent. 

11.  Organisation  in  all  its  forms;  also  as  discussed  in  a 
special  chapter. 

12.  Preservation  of  life,  either  of  each  other  or  of  man. 

13.  Storage  of  food  for  future  use. 

14.  The  stoppage  of  runaway  animals — for  instance,  of 
horses  and  ponies,  by  dogs. 

15.  Discovery  of,  and  action  in,  fires  of  man's  dwellings. 

16.  The  modes  of  murder  and  revenge. 

17.  Eepair  of  injury  to  dwellings  or  other  works  of  con- 
struction. 

18.  Taking  selfish  advantage  of  the  labours  of  others. 

19.  Behaviour  in  emergency. 

20.  Correction  of  error — as  shown  in  the  chapters  on 
« Error: 

21.  Discharge  of  duties,  self-imposed  or  imposed  by  man, 
including  the  economization  of  labour. 

22.  Means  of  attracting  attention— each  other's  or  man's 
— as  pointed  out  in  the  chapters  on  *  Language.' 

23.  Perpetration  and  concealment  of  crime. 

24.  Destruction  or  concealment  of  instruments  of  punish- 
ment, such  as  whips. 

25.  Arrangement  of  decorations  to  please  taste,   or  to 
suit  a  special  purpose,  such  as  a  nuptial  assembly  or  cere- 
mony. 

26.  The  phenomena  of  charming,  of  making  the  best  use 
of  their  personal  attractions. 

27.  Succouring  the  wounded. 


360  GENEEAL  ADAPTIVENESS. 

Among  ants  are  to  be  found  two  distinct  classes  or  kinds 
of  slaves,  viz. — 

1.  Slaves  proper,   equivalent   to   the   helots   of    ancient 
Greece,  the  negro  slaves  of  the  southern  United  States,  of 
Cuba  or  other  West  Indian  islands  or  possessions,  or  those 
that  are  still  kidnapped  and  sold  by  the  Portuguese  in  central 
Africa — slaves  that  are  employed  as  body  servants,  minister- 
ing to  all  the  personal  wants  and  comforts  of  their  masters. 

2.  Domestic  animals — equivalent  to  our  milk  bine — ani- 
mals subjected  to  domestication  for  the  sake  of  saccharine  or 
other  fluids  or  substances  they  secrete,  and  of  which  ants  in 
particular  are  fond. 

The  relation  of  ant  helots  to  their  masters  is  much  more 
intimate  than  that  of  any  human  slaves  usually  is  to  their 
owner ;  for,  in  certain  cases,  not  the  comfort  only,  but  the 
very  existence  of  the  master  depends  on  the  service  of  the 
slave.  Sir  John  Lubbock  tells  us  that  certain  slave-keeping 
ants  '  not  only  cannot  clean  themselves,  but  will  die  because 
they  cannot  feed  themselves,  even  when  surrounded  by  the 
best  of  food,  if  the  slaves  are  not  there  to  give  it  them.' 
These  slaves  are  indispensable  then  as  nurses  to  their  adult 
masters ;  but  they  act  also  as  domestic  servants,  doing  all  the 
ordinary  household  work  of  the  ant-nest.1 

Of  other  animals  domesticated  by  ants  for  the  sake  of 
their  useful  products,  the  most  familiar  are  Aphides,  or  plant 
lice,  which  yielfl.  a  much-prized  honeydew.  Ants  own  whole 
4  flocks '  of  these  plant-lice,  which  they  have  subjected  to  as 
true  and  as  kindly  a  domestication  as  in  the  case  of  the 
common  cow  by  man.  The  Hypoclinea,  a  Nicaraguan  ant, 
milks  leaf-hoppers,  or  scale  insects,  as  well  as  Aphides.  Cer- 
tain other  ants  keep  brown  scale  insects  for  the  sake  of  their 
honeylike  secretion.  To  use  Belt's  expression,  they  '  farm ' 
them,  just  as  we  do  milch  cows.  These  Aphides  and  scale  in- 
sects are  made  to  exude  their  honeydew  by  stroking  their 
sides  with  the  antennae  of  their  masters,  the  sagacious  ants. 
Ants  also  feed  beetles  for  the  sake  of  their  saccharine  secre- 

1  '  Daily  Telegraph '  report  and  comments  on  his  lecture  on  ants  at  the 
Royal  Institution,  London,  in  January  1877. 


GENERAL  ADAPTIVENESS.  361 

tions.  According  to  Lubbock,1  *  some  ants  have  small  blind 
beetles  in  their  nests,  kept  there  apparently  as  domestic 
animals.  A  kind  of  small  wood-louse  also  lives  with  them 
on  amicable  terms,  much  as  cats  and  dogs  do  with  men.' 

'  Aphides,'  says  Belt, '  are  the  principal  ant-cows  of  Europe. 
In  the  tropics  their  place  is  taken,  in  a  great  measure,  by 
species  of  Coceidce  and  genera  of  Homoptera,  such  as  Membra- 
cis  and  its  allies.'  At  least  four  genera  of  ants  in  Nicaragua 
keep  scale  insects  as  we  do  cows,  these  genera  being  Solen- 
opsis,  Pheidole,  Pseudomyrma,  and  Hypoclinea.  Solenopsis 
builds  domed  galleries,  or  byres,  for  the  protection  of  its  insect 
cattle,  and  otherwise  tends  them  carefully  (Belt).  Baird, 
again,  mentions  the  use  of  Cercopidcs  as  milk  cattle  by  ants. 

Slavery  and  domestication,  however,  are  by  no  means  the 
only  forms  in  which  one  animal  is  rendered  subservient  to 
the  convenience,  use,  or  sport  of  another — a  younger  or 
weaker  generally  to  an  older  and  stronger  individual.  One 
of  the  most  signal,  as  well  as  amusing  and  instructive, 
instances  of  direct  subjection  of  one  genus  and  species  to  the 
stronger  force  of  will,  greater  ingenuity  and  masterfulness 
of  another  is  the  riding  of  dogs,  horses,  asses  or  pigs,  by 
baboons  and  other  apes  or  monkeys  (Cassell).  A  cat  has 
been  known  to  make  use  of  a  dog's  back  to  get  ferried 
across  streams. 

Bullyism — petty  tyranny — is  perhaps  as  common  among 
other  animals  as  in  man.  Thus  one  determined  horse  some- 
times bullies  another  (submissive)  one  into  its  service  by 
biting,  teasing,  nagging  or  driving ;  that  is  to  say,  it  exacts 
a  forced,  unwilling,  compulsory  service. 

In  various  forms  of  usurpation  certain  animals  take  sel- 
fish, unfair,  and  sometimes  violent  advantage  of  the  labours 
of  others ;  and  to  them  are  quite  as  applicable  as  to  man 
Virgil's  lines,  well  known  to  every  schoolboy,  beginning 
'  Sic  vos  non  vobis.' 

The  wars  of  ants  exhibit  a  number  of  interesting  pheno- 
mena, including — 

1.  The  use  of  reinforcements. 

1  As  reported  in  the  '  Daily  Telegraph '  in  January  1877. 


362  GENEEAL  ADAPTIVENESS. 

2.  The  construction  and  defence  of  fortresses,  fortifica- 
tions, camps  and  barricades. 

8.  The  employment  of  tactics  and  manoeuvres,  including 
various  forms  of  strategy  or  stratagem. 

4.  The  use  of  surprise. 

5.  The  posting  and  vigilance  of  sentinels. 

6.  The  securing  and  proper  use  of  vantage  ground  and 
conditions. 

7.  The  adoption  of  definite  plans  of  action. 

8.  The  use  of  telegraphy  by  signals,  or  other  means  of 
conveying  intelligence  or  expressing  wants. 

9.  Taking  precautions  against  surprise,  and  for  retreat 
or  failure. 

10.  Artificial  intimidation. 

11.  The  perception  and  taking  advantage  of  weak  points 
or  posts  in  an  enemy's  body,  mode  of  attack  or  position. 

12.  Public  recognition  of  victory  and  defeat. 

Black  ants  in  the  Mauritius  send  messengers  with  intelli- 
gence, call  up  an  army,  procure  reinforcements  when  and  if 
required,  both  army  and  reinforcements  assembling  at  some 
fixed  rendezvous  (Baker).  In  the  case  of  these  and  other 
ants,  assistance  is  sent  when  asked  for  and  where  it  is 
wanted;  there  is  obvious  judgment  as  to  both  time  and  cir- 
cumstance (Figuier).  They  concentrate  or  divide  their  forces 
as  occasion  requires  (Nichols).  Their  tactics  or  manoeuvres 
include  the  regulation  and  change  of  route  in  their  marches 
(Kirby  and  Spence) ;  the  use  of  pitfalls,  ambuscades,  or  other 
means  of  entrapping  an  enemy  ;  the  falling  upon  him  when 
off  guard  and  unprepared — in  other  words,  taking  him  by 
surprise ;  the  employment  of  feints,  ruses,  lures,  or  snares, 
or  of  many  of  the  forms  of  deception  and  cunning  held 
necessary  or  permissible  in  human  warfare. 

On  the  return  of  ants  from  a  military  or  marauding  expe- 
dition, their  slaves,  who  have  remaine'd  at  home,  at  once 
recognise  the  signs  of  success  or  non-success,  and  act 
accordingly.  If  their  masters  come  back  as  conquerors, 
they  are  received  with  flattery,  compliment,  and  attentions; 
the  victors  are  relieved  of  their  prisoners,  offered  food,  and 
otherwise  respectfully  waited  on.  But  in  the  opposite 


GENERAL  ADAPTIVENESS.  363 

event  of  failure,  of  return  as  conquered  instead  of  con- 
querors, the  reception  is  characterised  by  sulkiness  and 
indifference  (Figuier). 

In  ants'  wars  there  is  a  cessation  of  the  fight  at  night 
and  a  renewal  of  it  at  dawn  ('  Percy  Anecdotes  ').  In  their 
marches  the  active,  if  necessary,  drag  the  sluggish  (Davies). 
In  their  fights  volunteers  frequently  make  sacrifices  for  the 
sake  of  the  rest — -pro  bono  publico  (Houzeau).  Ants  make, 
moreover,  special  provision  for  extreme  danger  (Figuier). 

As  in  man,  courage  has  sometimes  to  be  stimulated  or 
inspired  in  or  for  battle.  This  is  occasionally  done  by  the 
female  to  the  male — by  the  physical  operation  of  the  vis  a 
tergo — pushing  from  behind  (Wallace).  In  other  circum- 
stances their  industry,  perseverance,  patience,  endurance, 
energy,  affections,  require  encouragement,  enticing,  induc- 
ing, cajolery,  or  other  arts  of  the  one  sex  towards  the  other, 
of  the  old  to  the  young,  or  of  companions  to  each  other. 

Ants  construct  defensive  works ;  their  '  hills'  or  nests  have, 
sometimes  at  least,  masked  doors  and  galleries  (Figuier). 
Even  in  peace  times,  moreover,  as  a  measure,  of  precaution 
against  intrusion  or  surprise,  ants  close  their  gates  or  doors  at 
night,  and  open  them  in  the  morning  unless  in  the  case  of 
rain  (Darwin,  Nichols,  Figuier).  Fortifications  or  barricades, 
however,  are  not  confined  to  ants  nor  to  war  times.  Barri- 
cading of  the  entrance  to  the  comb  is  a  well-known  defensive 
expedient  of  bees  against  the  intrusion  of  the  death's-head 
moth  (Kirby  and  Spence).  Watson  cites  cases  of  magpies 
doing  the  same  against  other  birds.  Certain  birds  fortify  or 
protect  their  nests  with  prickly  shrubs. 

Strategy  is  not  confined  to  ants  nor  to  war.  On  the 
contrary,  it  is  commonly  exemplified  in  a  great  variety  of 
animals,  and  in  reference  to  the  capture  of  prey  or  booty. 
Indeed,  we  need  go  no  further  for  ample  and  striking  illus- 
trations than  to  our  domestic  cats  and  dogs  in  their  pilf  erings 
from  our  larders  or  dinner  tables.  In  them  and  other  ani- 
mals strategy  sometimes  involves  diplomacy,  and  diplomacy, 
hypocrisy — all  of  a  kind  that  would  do  credit,  or  discredit  as 
it  may  be  viewed,  to  human  courtiers  and  statesmen — and 
all,  moreover,  as  pointed  out  in  the  chapter  on  '  Deception.' 


364  GENERAL  ADAPTIVENESS. 

A  commoner  form,  however,  is  that  illustrated  in  such  means 
of  prey-capture  as  the  following  on  the  part  of  an  astute 
American  wasp,  a  dirt-dauber  or  builder.  Desirous  of  cap- 
turing a  doodlebug  beetle  that  was  beyond  its  reach  in  the 
bottom  of  its  hole,  the  wasp  tried  the  earth  all  about  the 
mouth  of  the  said  hole  so  as  to  obtain  the  driest,  selected  it, 
scratching  with  its  forefeet  so  as  to  throw  the  dust  into  the 
hole,  which  it  gradually  filled,  peeping  down  now  and  then 
to  see  the  result  of  its  operations.  The  natural  result  was 
that  the  poor  beetle  was  driven  to  clamber  upwards,  till  at 
last  he  poked  his  head,  blinded  by  dust,  above  ground,  when 
he  was  at  once  seized  by  his  sagacious  enemy.  There  are 
other  cases  in  which,  in  order  to  blind  an  enemy,  dust  is 
literally,  as  well  as  figuratively,  thrown  into  its  eyes  (Bro- 
derip).  The  Barbary  ape,  for  instance,  literally  flings  dust 
in  the  eyes  of  its  human  or  other  foes  (Watson)  ;  and  there 
are  cases  in  which  sagacious  animals,  such  as  the  elephant, 
for  other  purposes,  such  as  self-extrication,  or  the  extri- 
cation of  other  animals,  from  wells  or  pitfalls,  have  resorted 
to  the  serviceable  and  suitable  expedient  of  gradually  filling 
up  the  cavity,  of  whatever  character,  by  some  solid  material, 
such  as  branches  of  trees  or  hurdles. 

Different  animals  have  different  means  of  rousing  each 
other,  or  their  masters,  into  alertness — for  instance,  from 
the  sleeping  state.  Ant-watchmen  awaken  sleepers  in  the 
morning  by  strokes  with  their  antennae,  or  by  bites  if  neces- 
sary (Huber).  Certain  birds,  again,  rouse  their  sleeping 
masters  by  pulling  their  hair  or  nightcap,  or  pinching  the 
ear  ('Animal  World').  A  dog  that  had  discovered  a  fire  in 
its  master's  premises  gave  alarm  by  jumping  upon  the  beds 
occupied  by  the  master  and  his  family,  licking  their  faces  to 
arouse  the  sleepers.  Where  this  failed  in  one  case,  it  seized 
a  boy's  ear  with  its  teeth,  and  shook  or  pulled  it  forcibly  till 
the  boy  awoke.  Then  it  conducted  those  who  got  up  to  the 
scene  of  the  incipient  conflagration  ('Animal  World ').  A 
regimental  dog,  during  the  Crimean  war,  visited  the  sentries 
at  night.  If  they  were  asleep,  he  would  quietly  watch  and 
wait  beside  them,  apprising  them  instantly  of  any  threatened 
danger ;  while  if  they  were  awake  and  on  the  alert  he  passed 


GENEEAL  ADAPTIVENESS.  365 

on  to  the  next  ('  Chambers's  Journal ').  The  various — many 
of  them  ingenious — modes  in  which  dogs,  cats,  and  other 
animals  attract  man's  attention  are  described  in  the  chapters 
on  *  Language.' 

In  all  kinds  of  rivalry  it  is  common  for  animals  to  seize 
any  natural  advantage  over  an  adversary ;  such  as  the  inci- 
dence of  light,  or  the  favouring  character  of  ground.  This 
is  a  sort  of  fair  or  legitimate  advantage  recognised  in  all  the 
rivalries  of  man.  Thus  Wynter  tells  us  of  a  rat  taking 
advantage  of  light  in  a  fight  with  a  ferret,  and  its  proving 
successful  in  the  fight  so  long  as  it  held  its  well-selected 
position.  Zincke  refers  to  the  choice  by  '  a  cat,  when  at- 
tacked by  a  dog,  of  the  best  position  for  defence  the  locality 
offers.'  Spiders  and  scorpions,  and  many  other  animals, 
( take  up  advantageous  positions  where  they  expect  prey  to 
pass'  (Belt).  Small  birds  chase  the  owl  by  daylight  for 
sport  (Watson),  knowing  how  feeble  is  its  power  of  day 
vision,  and  how  helpless  it  is  thereby  rendered.  One  of  the 
commonest  forms  of  taking  advantage  is  making  use  of  a 
victim's  helplessness  by  injury,  sickness,  or  otherwise.  And 
this  sort  of  advantage  is  taken  of  man  himself  when  ill, 
disabled,  wounded,  dying.  Moreover,  so  thoroughly  do 
certain  birds  and  other  animals  realise  their  own  power  of 
torment,  assault,  or  prey  in  proportion  to  the  powerlessness  of 
an  enemy,  that  their  boldness  is  proportioned  to  the  help- 
lessness, real  or  supposed,  of  their  victim. 

Another  kind  of  advantage,  of  which  dogs  and  other 
animals  are  fully  sensible,  is  that  of  man's  protection.  Hence 
they  dare  and  do  things  under  his  auspices,  or  in  his  presence 
or  house,  which  they  would  never  venture  upon  alone.  They 
may  even  presume  upon  such  protection  or  patronage  by  acts 
of  impotent  and  impudent  defiance  or  insult.  The  sense  of 
the  protection  or  power  of  numbers,  of  union,  of  co-operation 
and  organisation,  gives  the  same  feeling  of  power,  and  im- 
parts the  same  kind  of  courage  ;  so  that  an  Eastern  dog,  in 
its  own  territory,  among  its  own  fellows,  who  will  rush  to  its 
aid  at  once  in  case  of  attack,  barks  its  defiance  or  utters  its 
threats  with  a  confidence  that  would  be  absent  were  it  alone. 

The  importance  of  taking  an  enemy  at  unawares,  when 


366  GENERAL  ADAPTIVENESS. 

off  guard,  not  expecting,  and  unprepared  therefore  for, 
intrusion  or  attack,  is  recognised  by  many  animals,  including 
bees  and  ants  (Figuier)  and  the  weasel  (Baird).  The  pisoti 
tries  to  surprise  the  iguana  while  the  latter  is  asleep  (Belt). 

Modes  of  ordinary  defence  against  the  attacks  of  enemies 
include  a  variety  of  efficient  means  of  protection,  involving 
usually  organisation  and  co-operation  in  a  common  purpose. 
Thus  musk  oxen,  if  surprised  either  in  family  or  as  a  herd, 
*  form  a  square,  the  young  ones  being  in  the  centre  and  the 
old  outside  with  their  heads  down  ;  or  else  the  bull,  placed 
as  a  sentinel,  takes  to  flight  and  the  others  closely  follow, 
the  placing  of  their  outposts  being  astonishing '  (Payer  and 
Copeland).  Cows  protect  their  young  by  forming  a  circle 
round  them,  while  cattle,  as  well  as  fowls  and  turkeys,  sur- 
round the  wolf  or  other  enemies  in  a  circle  (Pierquin). 

Illustrations  of  ingenious  ruses  in  the  capture  of  prey,  in 
the  punishment  of  offenders,  in  the  shirking  of  disagreeable 
duty,  are  innumerable.  A  crane  in  the  Zoological  Gardens, 
London,  being  annoyed  while  feeding  by  a  pertinacious 
sparrow,  at  length  pretended  indifference;  but  when  the 
tormentor  came  within  range  in  order  to  steal  a  share  of  the 
crane's  food,  the  latter  bird  stuck  its  beak  into  the  sparrow, 
intending  to  kill  it.  Failing  in  this,  however,  and  then  deli- 
berating how  to  dispose  of  its  victim,  the  crane  thrust  it 
under  water  in  a  tank,  and  it  was  saved  from  drowning  only 
by  one  of  the  keepers  ('  Animal  World  '). 

This  incident,  again,  is  a  type  of  others  that  are  of 
frequent  occurrence,  relating  on  the  one  hand  to  pretended 
unconsciousness,  helplessness,  or  apathy,  and  on  the  other  to 
the  various  forms  of  deliberate  murder — forms  suited  to  place, 
time,  and  other  circumstances.  '  Science  Gossip  '  tells  us  of 
a  magpie  pulling  a  cat's  tail  to  divert  it  from  its  food,  and 
similar  stories,  no  doubt  true,  are  told  of  monkeys,  ravens, 
crows,  and  other  animals  that  are  equally  mischievous, 
ingenious,  and  designing.  The  Nicaraguan  alligator  lies 
quite  still  on  river  banks,  as  if  dead,  so  as  to  catch  animals 
that  unsuspectingly  approach  it.  To  catch  waterfowl  it 
floats  like  a  log  on  the  water,  with  only  that  part  of  its  head 
containing  its  eyes  above  the  surface,  furtively  watching  its 


GENERAL  ADAPTIVENESS.  367 

prey.  When  it  approaches  the  birds,  having  estimated  their 
exact  position  and  distance,  it  wholly  submerges  itself  quietly, 
comes  up  under  the  unwary  prey,  and  drags  them  by  the 
legs  under  water.  It  is  also  said  to  kill  wild  pigs  by  half 
burying  itself  in  the  ground  in  the  forests  on  the  same  river- 
banks  (Belt). 

The  construction  of  nests  or  other  forms  of  dwelling 
affords — in  relation  to  site  and  material,  for  instance — many 
illustrations  of  adaptiveness.  As  to  site  or  position,  it  has 
first  to  be  noted  that  water-hens  and  swans  raise  the  level  of 
their  nests  with  the  rising  of  the  water  of  ponds  or  lakes,  of 
streams  or  rivers,  in  flood,  constructing  pillars  for  them 
(Watson). 

Various  birds  expose  their  nests  or  their  openings  to  the 
sun,  and  shelter  them  from  the  wind,  or  they  seek  the  shade, 
avoiding  the  sun,  according  to  climate.  In  other  words,  they 
select  a  proper  locality  as  to  exposure  or  shelter  (Houzeau). 
They  sometimes  provide  double  openings,  for  egress  as  well 
as  access,  using  the  former  in  case  of  intrusion  or  sur- 
prise by  enemies.  Watson  mentions  a  wren  opening  a  new 
entrance  to  its  nest  simply  to  escape  publicity  or  notice. 
As  to  size,  the  beaver,  for  instance,  adapts  the  size  of  its 
private  dwelling  to  the  increase  of  its  family  (Watson, 
*  Percy  Anecdotes '). 

The  selection  of  material  for  nest  building  is  even  more 
apparent.  In  general  terms  it  may  be  said  that  many,  if 
not  most,  birds  make  choice  of  that  material  which  is  at 
once  most  accessible  and  most  suitable,  including  manufac- 
tured material  of  man's.  Thus  in  the  southern  United 
States,  in  the  weaving  or  lining  of  their  nests,  birds  make 
appropriate  use  of  '  vegetable  hair ' — the  Tillandsia  usneoides 
of  botanists.  On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Schwendler  of  the 
telegraph  department  of  India,  in  a  communication  to  the 
Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal  in  1874,  describes  crows'  nests  as 
made  of  fragments  of  thin  telegraph  wire,  or  (in  one  case) 
of  the  wire  used  in  corking  soda-water  bottles;  and  he 
contrasts  the  ingenuity  or  sagacity  of  the  bird  with  the 
mental  status  of  the  human  natives  'who,  in  the  con- 
struction and  arrangement  of  their  houses,  had  not  ad- 
25 


368  GENERAL  ADAPTIVENESS. 

vanced  much,  by  the  introduction  of  western  civilisation.5 
Some  birds  give  up  the  use  of  moss  in  favour  of  wool  in 
nest-making  or  lining.  The  yellow-hammer  uses  man's 
thread,  twine,  and  ribbon  in  the  attachment  of  its  nest 
(Houzeau). 

Wasps,  in  their  nest-making,  have  been  known  to  make 
use  of  coloured  paper  shavings  covering  certain  strawberry 
beds  in  a  garden,  reducing  them  to  pulp  secundum  artem.  The 
observer  describes  the  regularity  of  the  undulating  lines  of 
colour  which  were  carried  round  and  round  the  cannon-ball- 
like  nest  that  was  suspended  to  the  branch  of  an  apple  tree.1 
The  President  of  the  Entomological  Society  of  London, 
in  February  1875,  exhibited  a  nest  of  Pollistes  gallica,  a  wasp 
caught  on  the  Esplanade  at  Corfu,  of  which  nest  the  cells 
were  partly  constructed  of  coloured  paper  taken  from  some 
posted  play-bills  ('Nature').  In  these  two  cases  the  colour 
of  the  paper  may  have  partly  been  an  attraction. 

Some  leaf-cutting  ants  ventilate  their  underground  gal- 
leried  dwellings,  regulating  their  atmosphere  both  as  to 
temperature  and  moisture  by  opening  or  closing  certain 
apertures,  and  by  taking  care  that  the  fragments  of  leaves 
which  they  carry  into  these  chambers  are  neither  too  dry 
nor  too  damp  (Belt).  The  same  ants  tunnel  under,  so  as 
to  avoid  crossing  over,  the  rails  of  a  tramway,  making  fresh 
tunnels  when  the  old  ones  are  intentionally  stopped  up. 
Certain  African  ants  construct  chimneys  or  air-shafts  for 
their  nests  in  case  of  floods,  the  shaft  opening  above  the 
high- water  level. 

The  repair  of  injury  in  works  of  construction  involves, 
inter  alia,  perception  of  weakness,  and  of  the  necessity  of 
remedying  it  by  greater  strength,  while  it  calls  forth  energy 
as  well  as  unanimity  in  co-operation.  Drone  or  other  bees 
consolidate  or  prop  up  a  tottering  comb  by  the  construction 
of  buttresses,  pillars,  or  other  supports,  as  has  frequently 
been  proved  in  experiments  made  by  Huber  or  others  with  a 
view  to  test  their  sagacity  in  this  respect ;  or  they  fasten 
weak  combs  more  securely.  In  other  words,  they  erect  tem- 

1  '  Glasgow  Weekly  Herald,'  January  13,  1875. 


GENERAL  ADAPTIVENESS.  369 

porary  scaffolding  (Watson),  just  as  man  does,  and  only  in 
emergency — when  it  is  required. 

On  the  other  hand,  some  of  the  higher  animals,  per- 
ceiving man's  object,  either  prevent  his  repairs — for  instance, 
of  fences — or  destroy  them  as  rapidly  as  they  are  made.  There 
is  sometimes  systematic  undoing  of  his  work — for  instance, 
in  trap  making  and  setting  (Houzeau). 

Many  of  the  arrangements  connected  with  the  collection, 
preservation,  and  use  of  food  illustrate  a  thoughtful  adapta- 
tion of  means  to  ends — an  adaptation  frequently  the  result 
of  repeated  experiment  and  as  frequent  failure.  As  concerns 
the  gathering  of  food,  various  insects  perforate  the  corollas 
of  flowers  in  order  expeditiously  to  get  at  the  honey  they 
contain.  In  the  case  of  bees  with  certain  ericas  or  Cape 
heaths  in  our  greenhouses,  the  tubular  corolla  *  being  too 
long  and  narrow  for  admitting  the  body,  and  too  deep  for 
the  proboscis  to  reach  the  base,  where  the  honey  is  placed, 
they  pierce  the  tube  of  the  corolla  from  the  exterior,  and 
thus  procure  the  honey  with  ease'  (Moore).  Bees  make  a 
hole  at  the  base  of  the  corolla  of  Antirrhinum  majus  in  order 
to  get  at  the  honey  without  entering  the  tube  of  the  flower 
(Mrs.  Plarr),  and  certain  honey  bees  do  the  same  in  the 
French  bean  and  scarlet-runner  (Lubbock). 

The  same  boring  of  holes  in  flower-tubes  by  humble  bees 
has  been  noticed  in  America  by  Meehan ;  and  what  is  of 
greater  interest,  as  illustrating  how  ready  animals  even  far 
down  in  the  zoological  scale  are  to  take  advantage  of  ready- 
made  means  to  ends,  the  hive  bee  uses  the  orifices  so  made  by 
the  humble  bee  in  nectar  extraction  from  flowers  (Darwin). 
The  glutton  sometimes  contrives  to  secure  the  bait,  without 
itself  being  entrapped,  by  undermining,  attacking  from  be- 
hind, or  other  means  of  destroying  the  action  of  the  trap  or 
of  detaching  the  bait.  The  black  bear  breaks  off  branches 
from  trees,  and  throws  them  on  the  ground  in  order  to 
collect  at  leisure  the  nuts  they  bear,  sometimes  partially 
gnawing  a  branch,  as  a  man  would  perhaps  saw  it,  for  its 
easier  breakage  (Houzeau).  The  mother  black  bear  of 
North  America  hauls  or  pushes  aside  timber  logs  in  order 
that  its  cubs  may  obtain  the  grubs  or  larvae  that  harbour 


370  GENERAL  ADAPTIVE!* ESS. 

themselves  underneath  (Gillmore).  Hens  wait  and  watch 
patiently  the  splitting  up  of  firewood  for  the  sake  of  the 
embedded  larvae  (Houzeau).  A  bear  in  Asia  Minor,  accord- 
ing to  Dr.  van  Lennep,  found  access  to  a  flock  of  sheep 
penned  in  a  stable  by  descending  the  chimney.  After  killing 
several  and  gorging  himself,  'he  piled  their  bodies  in  the 
wide  fireplace,  and  climbing  thereon  escaped  unperceived.' 

Much  contrivance  is  expended  on  the  obtaining  access 
to  or  procuring  of  food.  A  siskin  belonging  to  a  friend,  and 
the  performances  of  which  I  have  myself  seen,  pulls  up 
on  a  wheel  and  axle  a  thimble-full  of  seed  that  it  cannot 
otherwise  reach  and  tilts  it  up,  when  the  last  seeds  are 
left,  so  as  to  capsize  them  on  the  floor  of  the  cage.  In  this 
case  there  was  no  tuition  of  the  bird.  No  doubt  pulley  and 
thimble,  with  its  supply  of  coveted  provender,  are  provided. 
But  the  bird  has  taught  itself  to  use  the  pulley  and  get  at 
the  seeds  in  its  own  way,  and  in  the  proper  way — the  way 
that  man  himself,  if  intelligent,  would  choose  under  com- 
parable circumstances.  As  the  result  of  its  own  reflection — 
probably  as  the  result  also  of  experiment — the  sagacious 
bird  devised  the  appropriate  means  for  the  given  end. 

Again,  a  wood-pigeon  helped  itself  and  a  companion  to 
food  from  a  pheasant's  feeding-box  by  both  of  them  sitting 
on  the  lid,  so  as  to  open  it  by  their  joint  weight.  One 
had  tried  it  but  failed,  its  single  weight  being  insufficient. 
Judging  it,  however,  a  mere  question  of  weight,  the  aid  of 
another  individual  was  asked  and  obtained.  The  first  comer 
must  have  ascertained  for  itself  the  '  trick '  of  the  box — the 
means  by  which  it  was,  or  might  be,  opened — and  it  over- 
came the  difficulty  of  insufficient  weight  by  resorting  to 
co-operation. 

One  of  the  most  ingenious  and  effective  means  of  pro- 
curing food-supply  is  the  ringing  of  bells  for  it  by  the  goat, 
dog,  cat,  or  other  animals  (Watson),  an  expedient  that  has 
frequently  also  as  its  object  access  to  a  house  or  room. 
A  cat  belonging  to  Archbishop  Whately's  mother  was  in  the 
habit  of  ringing  the  parlour  bell  '  whenever  it  wished  the 
door  to  be  opened*  (Macaulay). 

Various  animals  stupify,  without  killing  their  prey,  in 


GENERAL  ADAPTIVENESS.  371 

order  that  it  may  be  quietly  conveyed  away  as  a  source  of 
food-supply  to  themselves  or  their  young.  This  stupefaction 
is  usually  produced  by  some  sort  of  stinging  or  poisoning,  by 
the  injection  into  some  part  of  the  body  of  the  victim  of 
some  fluid  having  narcotising  or  paralysing  properties,  the 
result  being  helplessness  and  harinlessness  in  the  victim. 

Certain  ants  of  Nicaragua  '  use  their  stings  to  paralyse 
their  prey.'  A  bug  there  also  probably  kills  much  larger 
and  more  powerful  animals  than  itself — for  instance,  a  cock- 
chafer— by  injecting  a  stupifying  poison  while  its  victim  is 
asleep.  '  Other  species  of  bug  certainly  inject  poisonous 
fluids.'  Nicaraguan  wasps  also  benumb  by  stinging,  so  as  to 
render  them  quiescent  and  removable  to  their  nests,  various 
spiders,  grasshoppers,  or  horse-flies,  storing  them  away 
while  still  alive  for  their  grubs  to  feed  on  (Belt).  An 
African  sphex,  another  insect,  makes  holes  in  the  ground, 
and  places  in  them  stupified  insects  along  with  her  own 
eggs;  while  another  species  watches  this  operation,  and 
when  this  provident  mother  leaves  in  quest  of  more  pro- 
vender, lays  her  alien  eggs  in  the  hole  (Livingstone),  just  as 
the  cuckoo  does  in  reference  to  the  eggs  and  nests  of  many 
other  birds. 

The  storage, , burial,  or  concealment  of  food  for  future  use 
by  themselves,  their  eggs,  or  young,  implies  in  many  cases 
its  proper  preparation  or  preservation  for  storage.  The  Alpine 
hare  of  Mongolia  lays  in  '  a  store  of  hay  for  winter  use, 
stacking  it  at  the  entrance  of  its  home.  The  hay  is  collected 
towards  the  end  of  summer,  carefully  dried,,  and  made  into 
little  stacks.  .  .  .  This  [hay]  serves  for  its  couch  under- 
ground and  for  food  during  the  winter'  (Prejevalsky).  This 
careful  drying  of  damp  fodder  is  frequently  required  prior  to 
its  storage. 

Certain  leaf-cutting  ants,  if  a  shower  wet  their  leaf 
burdens,  leave  them  outside  to  dry.  When  properly  dried 
by  the  first  sunshine  they  are  carried  into  the  nest,  but 
if  sodden  they  are  left  to  rot  outside  (Belt).  So-called 
*  harvesting '  ants  air  or  sun  damp  grain,  so  as  to  dry  it,  at 
proper  periods  or  under  appropriate  circumstances,  storing 
it  in  granaries  (Houzeau,  Sykes),  removing  husks  and 


372  'GENERAL  ADAPTIVENESS. 

refuse.  Not  only  so,  but  by  some  suitable  means  they  prevent 
the  germination  of  stored  seeds.  This  is  usually  supposed  to 
be  by  their  biting  off  the  germinating  ends  (Watson). 
Wallace  suggests  that  they  do  so  simply  by  '  continually 
using  for  food  those  seeds  which  begin  to  germinate,  and 
that  there  always  remain  many  seeds  whose  germination  is 
delayed.'  But  whatever  be  the  means  adopted,  we  know 
what  the  end  accomplished  is.  Certain  harvesting  ants  also 
climb  up  the  stems  of  shepherd's-purse,  bite  off  the  capsule, 
take  out  the  seeds,  transport,  accumulate,  and  store  them 
(Moggridge). 

Many  animals  make  caches  of  surplus  food,  of  what 
remains  after  all  the  present  calls  of  hunger  have  been 
satisfied ;  the  surplus  being  buried  or  concealed  sometimes  in 
holes  scraped  in  the  earth,  and  again  ingeniously  covered  up 
so  as  not  to  attract  notice,  or  under  rocks  and  stones.  The 
carrion  crow  removes  the  refuse  of  fishermen's  nets  by  por- 
tions to  above  highwater  mark,  depositing  them  under  rocks 
and  stones  (Montagu).  The  burial  of  food  in  order  that  it 
may  become  '  high '  is  said  to  be  characteristic  of  the 
retriever  breed  of  dogs  ('Nature').  But  in  other  cases, 
though  buried  or  concealed  food  may  become  tainted  or 
putrid  in  the  course  of  time  before  it  is  consumed,  it  is  no 
part  of  the  animal's  object  in  hiding  or  storing  it  that  it 
should  become  so. 

Certain  animals  have  to  dismember  their  prey  or  tear  up 
their  food  in  order  to  its  transport  or  consumption.  Certain 
shrikes  impale  or  transfix  their  prey  on  thorns  in  order  to 
pull  them  to  pieces ;  in  confinement  using  a  nail  for  the 
same  purpose  if  it  be  provided  by  man  or  is  accidentally 
accessible  (Montagu).  Foraging  ants  cut  their  prey  to 
pieces  for  convenience  of  carriage  (Belt). 

The  modes  of  administering  food  to,  or  of  feeding,  the 
young,  sick,  aged,  or  helpless,  involve  a  number  of  deliberate 
processes  ;  such  as — 

1.  Crushing  or  soaking  hard  substances. 

2.  Masticating  them  ;  and 

3.  Putting  the  bolus  down  the  throat. 

Colnett,  in  his  '  Voyage  to  the  South  Seas/  says  that  he 


GENERAL  ADAPTIVENESS.  373 

observed  an  old  bled  in  the  act  of  supplying  three  young 
ones  with  drink  by  squeezing  the  [juice  of]  the  berry  of  a 
tree  into  their  mouths  (Jesse) .  Houzeau  tells  us  of  a  duck 
soaking  hard  bread  in  water,  and  so  softening  it. 

As  regards  the  capture  of  prey,  certain  animals  drive  their 
game,  just  as  man  does,  in  some  cases  into  pitfalls  or  am- 
buscades. The  porpoise  drives  its  prey  as  packs  of  dogs  do 
the  hare  in  coursing  (Baird),  or  as  the  collie  does  sheep ;  and 
the  wolf,  pelican,  and  other  animals  do  the  same. 

The  somewhat  common  phenomenon  of  dogs  stopping 
runaway  horses  or  ponies  on  our  streets  or  roads  illustrates, 
inter  alia — 

1.  The  wonderful  control  exercised  sometimes  by  a  small 
animal  over  a  large  one  by  virtue  of  its  superior  intelligence, 
courage,  and  force  of  will ;  the  supremacy,  in  other  words, 
of  mental  or  moral  over  mere  physical  strength ;  and — 

2.  The  recognition  of  the  rights  of  property  or  ownership — 
for  the  captor  at  once  gives  up  the  reins  it  holds  between 
its  teeth  to  the  proper  driver  or  rider  of  the  runaway. 

The  '  Animal  World '  gives  the  case  of  a  retriever — a  cer- 
tain Jack,  well  known  in  Glasgow — that  stopped  a  runaway 
pony  in  the  usual  way.  The  pony  was  harnessed  in,  and 
had  run  off  with,  a  spring  cart  belonging  to  the  gamekeeper 
at  Kilmaronock,  Dumbartonshire.  Pursuing  the  runaway, 
the  said  gamekeeper  saw  the  pony  suddenly  drawn  up,  and 
on  overtaking  it  '  found  the  dog  standing  on  his  hind  legs, 
with  a  firm  hold  of  the  reins  in  his  mouth,  and  keeping  the 
horse  at  a  dead  stand/  He  at  once,  it  is  added, '  civilly  gave 
up  the  reins  to  the  proper  driver.' 

Another  case  is  given  in  which  the  dog  acted  as  a  groom, 
leading  the  runaway  horse  by  the  bridle  (/Animal  World'). 
In  like  sagacious  manner  dogs  have  been  known  to  stop  the 
drifting  away  of  boats,  and  even  to  tow  back  drifting  boats. 
Thus  we  are  told  of  a  Labrador  dog  that  swam  after  a  boat 
that  had  got  adrift,  and  without  any  sort  of  direction  from 
man  seized  the  tiller  rope,  that  was  dragging  in  the  water, 
and  by  its  means  towed  the  boat  ashore  against  a  breeze- 
ripple. 

A  certain  small  ant  in  Africa  masters  a  much  larger 


374  GENEEAL  ADAPTIVENESS. 

common  fly  by  simply  tiring  it  out  by  its*  greater  pertinacity. 
'  By  seizing  a  wing  or  leg,  and  holding  on  till  the  fly  is  tired 
out J  (Livingstone),  it  overcomes  superior  size  and  strength — 
another  illustration  of  the  fact  that  in  other  animals,  as  in 
man,  there  is  frequently  a  dominance  of  mind  over  matter  in 
the  practical  affairs  of  life — that  *  knowledge  is  power,'  and 
can  be  applied  as  such. 

Various  animals  afford  aid  to  each  other  when  wounded, 
or  otherwise  in  need  of  it,  in  a  great  variety  of  appropriate 
ways.  Thus  certain  sparrows  that  failed,  by  seizing  its 
wings  with  their  bills,  to  lift  a  wounded  companion,  so  as  to 
convey  it  to  a  position  of  safety,  got  a  twig,  and  while  the 
maimed  bird  took  hold  of  its  centre  by  its  bill,  two  of  its 
companions  seized,  one  each  of  the  ends,  so  raised  the  help- 
less sparrow  from  the  ground,  and  removed  it  to  a  safer  place 
('Animal  World'). 

Many  other  arrangements  for  mutual  advantage  or  aid 
involve  adaptiveness.  Thus  titi  monkeys  cuddle  together  as 
children  do  for  mutual  warmth  and  companionship  (Gas- 
sell),  and  mice,  as  well  as  probably  many  other  animals, 
creep  together  for  mutual  heat.  Mice,  moreover,  clean  each 
other's  fur. 

Equally  ingenious  and  successful  are  the  means  adopted 
frequently  for  their  own  personal  advantage  or  comfort — for 
instance,  in  easing  themselves  of  their  burdens,  or  of  light- 
ening them  when  they  cannot  throw  them  off.  The  expe- 
dients of  the  horse,  ass,  and  mule  to  get  rid  of  a  rider  are 
too  familiar  incidents  to  require  more  than  reference.  But 
there  are  endless  other  instances  of  similarly  effective  inge- 
nuity. Thus  mules  lighten  their  burdens  by  soaking  them 
in  water  when  they  have  reason  to  believe  they  consist  of 
substances — such  as  sugar  or  salt — that  will  dissolve  readily 
in  water,  distinguishing  such  substances  from  others — such 
as  cotton  or  woollen  goods — that  will  become  more  weighty 
by  the  absorption  and  retention  of  water  (Watson). 

This  category  includes  the  devices  resorted  to  for  the 
preventing  of  irritation  or  galling  of  the  neck  or  other  special 
parts  of  the  body,  or  general  inconvenience  from  chains  or 
collars,  in  the  ape,  dog,  buffalo,  raven,  and  other  animals 


GENERAL  ADAPTIVENESS.  375 

(Watson).  An  orang  carried  its  chain  by  coiling  it  and 
throwing  it  over  its  shoulder,  as  man  would  have  done,  or 
by  suspending  it  from  its  mouth,  holding  it  in  its  teeth 
(Cassell). 

We  might  go  on  to  any  extent  multiplying  and  varying 
such  illustrations  of  adaptiveness  in  the  lower  animals  ;  but 
instances  are  to  be  found  in  almost  every  chapter  of  this 
book,  and  further  detail  here  is  unnecessary  and  undesirable. 
It  is  desirable,  however,  to  call  attention  to  the  evidences 
of  judgment,  of  calm  and  deliberate  reflection,  or  of  rapid 
thought  and  equally  rapid  decision  that  everywhere  present 
themselves. 

Such  an  evidence  is  the  hesitancy  so  frequently  shown  in 
determining  on  a  course  of  action,  the  animal  being  obviously 
puzzled  or  bewildered,  on  the  one  hand,  as  to  the  nature  or 
amount  of  danger,  and  on  the  other,  as  to  the  best  means  of 
avoiding  it.  In  the  dog  especially  irresolution  may  fre- 
quently be  noticed ;  the  animal  is  obviously  '  of  two  minds ; ' 
it  cannot  for  or  at  the  moment  come  to  a  decision — 'make  up 
its  mind'  in  one  direction  or  another;  it  is  weighing,  per- 
haps, its  fears  and  hopes,  likes  and  dislikes,  and  it  has  not 
yet  determined  the  preferable  or  proper  course  of  action. 
Dogs  may  often  be  seen  pausing  for  reflection,  for  a  consider- 
ation or  contemplation  of  ways  and  means ;  for  deliberation, 
for  instance,  at  the  bifurcation  of  a  road — which  of  its  two 
branches  should  be  followed.  Elephants,  too,  ponder  over 
the  best  means  of  doing  their  work  before  arriving  at  a  deci- 
sion ('  Animal  World').  Such  hesitation  or  doubt  involves  a 
comparison  of  different  means  in  relation  to  their  adaptability 
to  compass  a  given  end. 

Another  important  evidence  is  to  be  found  in  animals 
usually  obedient  to  man — such  as  sporting  dogs — venturing 
sometimes  to  think  and  act  for  themselves,  using  their  own 
discretion  instead  of  obeying  orders,  or  acting  according  to 
use  and  wont ;  even  setting  up  their  own  judgment  in  op- 
position to  that  of  their  master,  and  acting  upon  their  own 
judgment — in  other  words,  independently  of  him.  And  it  is 
further  noteworthy  that  in  such  cases,  as  in  so  many  others, 
the  lower  animals  frequently  show  their  superior  intelligence, 


376  GENEKAL  ADAPTIVENESS. 

and  when  they  have  a  sensible,  liberal-minded  master,  they 
reap  the  fruit  of  their  superiority  by  his  commendation  for 
their  acting,  under  exceptional  circumstances,  on  their  own 
discretion  and  for  the  best. 

Berkeley  tells  us  of  one  of  his  dogs,  a  certain  Smoker, 
going  to  fetch  a  shot  pheasant  which  happened  to  fall  among 
a  lot  of  unflushed  birds.  After  advancing  a  certain  distance, 
it  stopped  short  and  returned,  deeming  it  better  not  to  put 
up  the  living  birds.  Another  dog — Wolf — being  ordered 
to  drive  rabbits  out  of  the  shrubbery,  declined  because  it 
proved  to  contain  a  covey  of  young  pheasants. 

Under  other  circumstances  the  dog,  while  adopting  man's 
suggestions,  supersedes  them  by  its  own  if  it  finds  or  thinks 
its  own  better  (Nichols).  Though,  as  a  rule,  in  the  many 
cases  in  which  other  animals  co-operate  with  man,  his 
animal  accomplice  shows  an  unquestioning  acquiescence  in 
his  arrangements,  this  is  by  no  means  always  the  case ;  for 
it  sometimes  not  only  most  emphatically  but  most  success- 
fully protests  against  both  them  and  him,  and,  in  short,  takes 
its  own  way  or  refuses  all  co-operation. 


CHAPTEE  XXI. 

ORGANISATIONS. 

THE  power  and  practice  of  organisation  among  the  lower 
animals  includes  a  whole  series  of  phenomena  of  the  highest 
interest — phenomena  that  involve  the  possession  and  applica- 
tion, or  exhibition,  of  the  highest  mental  and  moral  faculties. 
Such  phenomena  are — 

1.  Forms  of  government. 

2.  Respect  for,  and  submission  or  obedience  to,  consti- 
tuted authority. 

3.  The  supremacy  of  strength,  bodily  or  mental,  or  both 
conjoined,  including  the  perception,  recognition,  and  appre- 
ciation of  superiority. 

4.  Union,  combination,  co-operation,  concerted  action  for 
specific  purposes,  including  compacts  or  agreements,  and  alli- 
ances or  associations,  offensive,  defensive,  or  otherwise. 

5.  Division  of  labour,  including  taking  turn  in  duty  or 
playing  parts  in  a  performance. 

6.  Method,  order  or  orderliness,  regularity  or  system,  in- 
cluding the  classification  of  ranks,  castes  or  clans,  in  society ; 
with  promotion  and  deposition. 

7.  The  force  of  discipline. 

Writers  on  the  habits  of  the  lower  animals  have  described 
various  systems  of  government  as  existing  among  them,  in- 
cluding the  following : — 

1.  The  monarchical.  Among  certain  animals  there  are 
kings  and  queens,  with  all  the  paraphernalia  of  royalty,  such 
as — 

a.  Boyal  chambers  or  apartments. 


378  ORGANISATIONS. 

6.  Royal  body-guard. 

These  kings  and  queens  obviously  vary  in  their  status  and 
functions,  as  illustrated  by  the  very  different  positions  occu- 
pied by — 

1.  The  king  of  the   quails,  of  vultures,  of  herrings 

(Houzeau,  Watson). 

2.  The  king  and  queen  of  certain  Termites  (Biichner). 

3.  Queen  bees  (Huber,  Figuier). 

The  influence  of  the  queen  bee  is  in  many  respects  a  re- 
markable one.  She  leads  or  directs  her  subjects  (Huber) 
just  as  other  and  male  chiefs  do  their  flocks  or  herds.  Her 
absence  or  sterility  leads  to  anarchy  in  the  populace,  to  a 
general  dissolution  of  society,  marked  by  the  loss  of  all 
activity,  physical  and  mental,  by  hopelessness,  the  want  of 
courage  or  spirit,  the  development  of  theft  and  rapine — in 
general  terms,  by  utter  demoralisation.  Her  disappearance, 
too,  causes  general  emotion  and  commotion,  aimless  running 
about,  idleness  and  apathy — in  short,  a  kind  of  mental  de- 
rangement for  the  time.  The  effect  on  her  subjects  is  para- 
lysing. Experimental  excitement  and  calm  may  be  produced 
at  will  by  removing  and  replacing  her.  Joy  and  satisfac- 
tion, moreover,  are  produced  by  the  receipt  of  a  new  queen. 
All  this  arises  from  the  presence  or  absence  of  what  Figuier 
calls  '  a  moral  tie.'  Just  as  among  male  leaders,  rival  bee 
queens  contend  for  supremacy  ;  their  fights  are  characterised 
by  great  rage,  animosity,  fury  or  ferocity,  are  accompanied 
by  general  agitation  or  tumult  in  the  bee  community,  and 
end  in  the  reign  of  the  victor  (Huber). 

This  government  of  bees  by  a  queen  is  one  of  the  most 
striking  instances  among  the  lower  animals  of  female  supre- 
macy. But  it  is  not  the  only  one.  Figuier  describes  the 
queen  bee  as  president  of  a  republic,  with  female  vice-presi- 
dents ;  and  there  are  also  among  bees  and  ants  amasons, 
female  troops  or  soldiers  (Westwood).  According  to  Combe 
there  are  exceptional  cases — as  in  goats — where  the  leader 
of  a  flock  or  herd  is  a  female. 

Certain  Termites,  says  Biichner,  *  have  a  perfectly  organ- 
ised state,  with  king,  queen/  and  other  ranks  in  society,  and 
an  elaborately  constructed  building  for  their  residence.  '  In 


ORGANISATIONS.  379 

its  interior  is  situated  a  so-called  royal  residence,  with  cham- 
bers and  galleries  around  for  the  attendants.' 

2.  The  republican.  Republics  have  been  described  in  the 
ant  and  bee  (Figuier),  in  horses,  dogs,  and  other  animals.  The 
commonwealths  of  the  street  dogs  of  Constantinople,  with  their 
curious  regulations,  have  been  described  quite  recently  by  the 
'  Times '  correspondent  there,1  as  they  have  also  formed  the 
subject  of  remark  by  Watson  and  other  writers.  Communities 
or  societies  of  wasps  live  on  terms  of  equality ;  they  are  free 
citizens  of  free  cities,  with  no  paupers  ;  there  are  no  despots 
and  no  despotism,  according  to  Westwood  and  Figuier.  But 
the  same  form  of  government,  which  by  one  observer  or  writer 
is  termed  a  monarchy,  with  a  king  or  queen  at  its  head,  is  by 
another  described  as  a  republic,  with  a  male  or  female  presi- 
dent. It  is  quite  immaterial  how  we  speak  of  this  or  that 
system  of  polity  in  this  or  that  genus  or  species  of  animals. 
The  essential  feature — one  of  importance  in  many  ways — is 
the  government  of  a  community  or  society,  of  a  band  or  troop, 
flock  or  herd,  family  or  other  group  of  individuals,  species  or 
genera,  large  or  small,  by  a  leader  or  chief. 

The  consideration  of  this  form  of  government  embraces 
the  following  features  of  interest : — 

1.  The  principle  of  selection,  and  election  or  appoint- 
ment. 

2.  Competition  and  ambition  for  rule  and  their  results. 

3.  The  subjection  of  the  weak  to  the  strong  in  body,  mind, 
will. 

4.  The  use  and  abuse  of  authority,  including  the  power  of 
command. 

5.  The  appreciation  of  insignia  of  office  or  status. 

6.  The  value  attached  to  the  possession  of  power  and 
place. 

In  various  forms  leaders,  governors,  chiefs,  commanders, 
patriarchs,  masters,  rulers,  or  heads,  are  to  be  found  in  many 
social  animals,  directing  and  defending  the  groups  into  which 
they  are  divided.  They  occur,  for  instance,  among  or  in  wild, 
military,  and  pack  horses,  Eskimo  dog  teams,  bands  of 
smuggling  dogs  or  of  dogs  in  Eastern  towns,  such  as  Con- 
1  During  the  Servo-Turkish  war  in  January  1876. 


380  ORGANISATIONS. 

stantinople,  camels,  deer,  oxen,  mules,  sheep,  elephants, 
buffalo,  ass,  kangaroo,  goats,  certain  of  the  Quadrumana 
(such  as  the  siamang  gorilla,  spider,  howling,  araguata,  gue- 
reza,  and  other  monkeys),  cranes,  swallows,  cocks  and  hens. 
These  leaders  are,  as  a  general  rule,  males  of  middle  age, 
sometimes  elderly  or  old,  possessing  the  following  qualifica- 
tions for  office : — 

1.  Physical  superiority;  they  are  usually  or  frequently 
above  the  average  in  size  and  strength,  being  vigorous,  ro- 
bust, active,  agile  animals,   that   have  proved   themselves 
successful  in  combat  and  otherwise. 

2.  Mental  superiority.      They  are   distinguished,  more- 
over, for  their  courage,  cautiousness,  sagacity,  power  of  com- 
mand, ability  to  act  in  emergency,  so  as  to  protect,  defend,  or 
direct  their  followers;  for  their  experience;  special  know- 
ledge of  enemies  or  of  ground ;  power  of  self-control,  espe- 
cially of  control  of  temper ;  interest  in  the  common  weal ; 
enterprise ;  ingenuity  and  perseverance  in  the  overcoming  of 
difficulties — in  other  words,  adaptiveness. 

This  superiority  is  conjunct,  physical  and  mental ;  for  a 
merely  huge  strong  animal,  without  the  requisite  intelligence 
to  adapt  its  strength  to  circumstances,  would  be  useless  as  a 
leader.  But  the  superiority  of  the  chief  is,  as  a  rule,  of  such 
a  character  as  to  be  conspicuous,  and  to  command  or  secure 
on  that  account  confidence  on  the  one  hand,  and  respect  on 
the  other.  Confidence  and  respect  in  their  turn  beget  obedi- 
ence or  submissiveness,  so  that,  while  all  animals  that  possess 
leaders  follow  their  lead  both  literally  and  figuratively,  some 
do  so  only  too  implicitly — for  instance,  in  the  case  of  sheep 
that  rush  after  their  bell-wether  to  their  own  wholesale  de- 
struction. 

Generally  speaking,  leaders  are  of  the  same  species  as  the 
animals  they  command  ;  belong,  perhaps,  to  the  same  small 
family  or  group,  as  in  the  case  of  certain  patriarchs  or  mere 
heads  of  families  or  tribes.  But  in  other  cases,  the  chief 
belongs  to  a  different  species  or  genus,  and  this  category 
includes  omnipotent  man.  Thus  the  axis  deer  sometimes 
leads  '  mobs  '  of  kangaroos  in  Australia.  '  The  donkey  in  the 
district  of  Smyrna,  in  Broussa,  and  the  Asiatic  Olympus,  in 


ORGANISATIONS.  381 

Anatolia,  and  other  parts  of  Asia  Minor,  is  frequently  em- 
ployed ....  as  leader  of  a  caravan  of  camels ;  for,  contrary 
to  the  prejudices  of  the  West,  in  Oriental  lands  Lon gears  en- 
joys the  reputation  of  being  the  most  intelligent  of  hoofed 
beasts '  (Hseckel).  Mares  are  employed  as  leaders  of  droves 
of  mules  in  Central  America.  The  latter  animals  have  a  high 
respect  for  and  pride  in  the  horse  as  a  'distinguished  relative;' 
hence  they  willingly  accept  a  mare  as  their  queen  (Wood). 

Man  himself  frequently  becomes  the  leader  of  his  flocks 
or  herds,  as  in  the  case  of  shepherds  in  the  East,  who 
literally  *  lead ' — do  not  drive,  as  ours  do — their  flocks.  Man 
is  recognised  literally  and  figuratively  as  its  '  governor '  by 
the  dog ;  his  right  to  command  is  freely  acknowledged ; 
the  propriety  of  his  orders  or  actions  is,  as  a  rule,  not  dis- 
puted. And  it  is  important  to  note  that  in  this  case  it  some- 
times, at  least,  happens  that  he  gains  and  wields  his  wonder- 
ful power  over  other  animals  by  the  exercise  of  kindness,  not 
of  terrorism — by  the  supremacy  of  love,  not  of  fear.  Thus 
the  command  of  the  shepherd  over  his  sheep  in  primitive 
countries,  where  the  use  of  the  sheep  dog  is  unknown — for 
instance,  in  Palestine — is  acquired  by  his  constant  associa- 
tion with  his  sheep,  by  his  habitual  kindly  usage,  whereby 
confidence  in,  and  attachment  to,  his  person  or  personality 
are  produced. 

Not  only  so,  but  man  educates  certain  animals  to  be 
leaders  and  certain  others  to  be  followers ;  he  trains  the  one 
to  command,  the  other  to  obedience.  He  selects,  for  instance, 
certain  rams  or  wethers,  training  them  to  command  certain 
sheep,  while  he  educates  and  accustoms  the  sheep  to  follow 
and  obey  the  said  leaders.  The  leader  ram  himself  comes  to 
understand  and  obey  man's  directions  or  commands,  as  given 
whether  by  signal  or  gesture,  or  in  the  form  of  verbal  lan- 
guage, answering  at  once  to  his  call ;  and,  as  the  result  of 
similar  patient  and  kindly  tuition,  the  whole  of  the  flock 
learn  to  understand  and  obey  the  orders  or  directions  of 
their  wether  (Touatt). 

It  is  man,  also,  who  selects  the  leaders  in  the  case  of 
Eskimo  dog  teams  (Parry),  and  the  horse-leaders  of  Eastern 
caravans  (Macgregor)  or  of  waggon  teams  (Pierquin). 


382  ORGANISATIONS. 

Whether  belonging  to  the  same  or  different  species, 
animal  leaders  have  recognised  and  definite  duties  to  per- 
form, recognised  equally  by  themselves  and  those  under  their 
control.  These  duties  include,  for  instance — 

1.  The  marshalling  or  ordering  of  large  bodies  of  in- 
dividuals. 

2.  The  prevention  of  straggling  and  the    collection  of 
stragglers. 

3.  The  maintenance  of  authority,  including  the  suppres- 
sion or  punishment  of  insubordination. 

4.  The  exercise  of  command  and  the  issuing  of  orders 
by  voice-sounds,  signs,  their  own  conduct  or  example,  or 
otherwise. 

5.  The  making  arrangements  for  safety,  defence  or  flight 
— including  the  substitution  of  order  for  confusion. 

6.  Guidance  in  the  proper  path,  finding  the  way  and 
showing  it. 

The  animal  leader  has  first  to  master  his  own  position  in 
all  its  bearings,  and  he  usually  takes  pains  to  do  so.  For  he 
exercises  an  authority  one  of  the  characteristics  of  which 
is  a  dangerous  degree  of  responsibility  to  his  fellows.  His 
conduct  is  at  all  times  before  them,  and  he  is  liable  at  any 
moment  to  popular  vengeance — in  many  cases  it  may  be  in- 
nocently or  unjustly — to  deposition  and  degradation,  iopunisJi- 
ment — perhaps  of  a  capital  kind — for  any  indiscretion,  for 
any  failure  even  in  strength  or  courage.  He  is  punishable 
for  errors  both  of  omission  and  commission,  real  or  supposed, 
and  the  punishment  may  be  both  direct  and  summary.  Thus 
Houzeau  mentions  a  furious  onslaught  of  a  herd  of  buffaloes 
on  their  leader,  a  feeble  old  chief.  So  infuriated  were  they, 
so  blinded  by  passion,  so  absorbed  in  the  execution  of  their 
vengeance,  that  they  were  for  the  moment  indifferent  to  the 
attack  of  man. 

Generally  speaking,  the  animal  chief  enjoys  his  supre- 
macy only  so  long  as  he  can  maintain  it,  and  this  is  usually 
vi  et  armis — by  virtue  of  superior  bodily  strength.  "When- 
ever there  is  an  approach  to  anything  like  decay — physical 
or  mental,  or  both — it  is  sure  to  be  espied  by  observant 
youthful,  ambitious  aspirants  for  his  place  and  power.  The 


ORGANISATIONS.  383 

result  is  a  challenge  and  a  duel,  command  remaining  with, 
or  pertaining  to,  the  victor,  be  he  young  or  old. 

Naturally  it  is  usually  the  younger  antagonist  that  out- 
strips the  older.  While  this  success  is  a  source  of  exultation 
to  the  one,  it  is  a  cause  of  humiliation  in  the  other ;  and  the 
sense  of  defeat,  deposition,  and  degradation  may  be  so  keen 
as  to  lead  to  fatal  pining  from  grief:  the  disgraced  chief,  in 
short,  sometimes  dies  of  his  shame. 

The  principle  of  appointment  in  the  case  of  all  kinds  of 
animal  leaders  is  that  the  strongest,  boldest,  best  in  every 
way,  should  be  called  to  the  front  and  invested  with  supreme 
power ;  and  this  principle  actuates  man  equally  with  other 
animals  in  the  selection  of  an  animal  chief.  Man  chooses 
and  instals  a  leading  mule,  horse,  dog,  or  ram  on  the  very 
same  principle  that  leads  a  flock  or  herd  to  acquiesce  in  the 
self-appointment  of  some  victorious  young  male.  In  human 
emergency  of  a  serious  kind,  and  on  a  large  or  public  scale, 
it  frequently  happens  that  some  man  of  marked  individuality, 
but  previously  unknown,  comes  to  the  front  as  a  volunteer 
leader,  no  one  knows  how,  and  his  supremacy  is  at  once,  by 
tacit  consent,  acknowledged.  Average  people  feel  that  he  is 
'the  right  man  for  the  right  place;'  he  has  the  requisite 
force  of  character,  patriotism,  and  the  ability  to  command 
universal  confidence — and  universal  confidence  is  forthwith 
accorded,  for  the  time. 

For  the  man  of  the  time  is  as  liable  to  be  discarded  by  a 
fickle  people  or  populace  as  the  proud  and  splendid  stallion 
when  he  begins  to  lose  that  most  indefinable  of  all  qualities, 
popularity.  So  in  animal  panics,  for  instance,  some  previ- 
ously unobserved  or  undistinguished  individual  starts,  lite- 
rally in  this  case,  to  the  front,  and  is  followed,  for  weal  or 
woe,  by  the  rest  of  a  troop,  herd,  or  flock. 

There  is  ample  evidence  to  show  that  self-appointment  to 
the  leadership  is  common  among  social  animals ;  that  the 
ambition  of  some  young,  energetic,  vigorous  male  urges  it  to 
challenge  and  defeat  the  reigning  chief,  a  defeat  that  is  tan- 
tamount to  the  compulsory  deposition  of  the  one  and  the 
self-instalment  of  the  other.  This  new  appointment,  how- 
ever, is,  under  the  circumstances,  homologated  or  ratified  by 
26 


384  ORGANISATIONS. 

the  general  assent  or  consent,  so  that,  in  one  sense,  it  may 
be  deemed  a  unanimous  election.  There  is  a  practical  and 
tacit  acknowledgment  of  the  fitness  of  things,  the  excitement 
being  confined  mainly  to  the  combatants  themselves,  though 
the  spectators  no  doubt  look  on  with  a  varying  degree  of 
interest. 

Though  there  is  a  strong  probability  there  is  no  direct 
evidence  in  favour  of  the  supposition  that  where  no  such 
candidate  presents  himself,  and  takes  the  law  of  competi- 
tion and  succession  into  his  own  hands — selection  is  made 
by  universal  suffrage — by  placing  in  a  position  of  com- 
mand that  individual  among  them  best  qualified  to  exercise 
the  supreme  power.  There  is  very  distinct  appointment, 
and  by  a  kind  of  universal  suffrage,  where  the  street  dogs  of 
Constantinople,  as  they  sometimes  do,  select  as  their  leader 
some  animal  belonging  to  a  different  quarter  of  the  town — 
from  among  their  natural  enemies  therefore — the  motive  for 
such  a  choice  being  signal  bravery  displayed  by  the  favoured 
individual,  either  in  attack  or  defence  (Watson).  There  are 
certain  other  official  appointments,  both  of  a  public  and  pri- 
vate kind,  in  which  selection  may  or  may  not  be  made  by 
and  from  the  general  body  of  a  community,  and  with  or 
without  prominent  candidature,  or  candidature  or  competi- 
tion at  all  by  the  individual  selected.  Thus  there  must  be 
some  sort  of  appointment,  by  selection  of  the  fittest,  in  the 
case  of — 

1.  Mayors  of  towns. 

2.  Commissioners  or  ambassadors. 

3.  Spies  or  scouts. 

4.  Sentinels,  sentries  or  outposts. 

5.  Nurses. 

There  are  no  doubt  many  intermediate  cases  in  which 
one  animal  takes  the  lead  of  others  without  any  special  exer- 
tion, either  on  its  part  or  theirs.  There  is  no  competition 
and  no  combat,  simply  because  there  is  no  rival.  In  such 
cases  the  manifest  superiority  is  usually  mental  rather  than 
physical,  and,  moreover,  the  mental  superiority  of  one  may 
overrule  the  physical  superiority  of  all  the  others.  Thus 
a  proprietor  on  one  of  the  western  islands  of  Scotland,  who 


ORGANISATIONS.  385 

also  farms  his  own  estate,  informed  me  that  he  had  a  pony 
which  took  the  lead  of  all  the  horses  on  his  farm,  by  virtue 
simply  of  its  superior  intelligence. 

The  possession  of  the  leadership  is  apt  to  beget  in  differ- 
ent animals,  according  to  circumstances  of  individuality  or 
otherwise — 

1.  A  sense  of  dignity,  leading  to  or  marked  by  demure- 
ness  or  gravity  of  gait,  look  and  behaviour. 

2.  Pride  in  rank,  office,  or  status,  and  in  its  insignia, 
badges,  or  trappings,  involving  sometimes  consequentiality 
and  a  stickling  for  precedence. 

The  military  horse  displays  its  pride  in  its  caparison,  as 
it  does  in  all  the  pomp  or  show  of  parade  or  procession ;  and 
the  same  sort  of  pride  is  exhibited  by  military  elephants  and 
by  leading  mules  in  teams.  But  not  only  do  some  of  these 
animals — for  instance,  the  military  horse — recognise  or  ap- 
preciate their  own  rank,  but  they  are  most  observant  of  that 
of  man,  or  of  the  man  with  whom  they  have  most  to  do — 
their  master  and  rider.  And  their  manner  varies  accord- 
ingly. Thus  the  military  horse  that  carries  the  general 
sometimes  shows  conspicuously  its  self-importance  by  its 
haughty  gait  (Watson).  Such  is  the  force  of  discipline  and 
habit,  such  the  respect  for  rank  in  old  regimental  horses, 
that  at  trumpet-call  they  have  been  known  to  form  them- 
selves with  precision  into  rank — led  or  commanded  by  the 
officers'  chargers  ('Animal  World').  The  recognition  of 
distinctions  of  human  rank  is  more  familiar,  however,  in  the 
case  of  the  dog  (Watson). 

Wood  tells  us  that  the  leader  among  deer,  horses,  and 
oxen  '  will  not  suffer '  certain  things  to  be  done  'without  his 
permission,  and  resents  the  slightest  interference  with  his 
authority.'  His  rule  is  more  or  less  despotic ;  and  it  may 
be  that,  under  the  circumstances,  despotic  government  is 
the  only  form  of  rule  that  has  any  chance  of  success.  There 
is  an  equal  danger  in  other  animals,  as  in  man,  however, 
of  the  abuse  of  despotic  power — in  tyranny. 

The  love  of  precedence  is  sometimes  strikingly  exemplified 
among  cows.  Thus  the  case  is  given  of  an  English  cow  that 
was  'the  very  personification  of  pride.  .  .  .  She  claimed 


386  ORGANISATIONS. 

precedence  ....  always  went  ahead  of  the  herd.  The  best 
bit  of  pasture  was  her  exclusive  domain,  on  which  no  other 
durst  intrude.  ...  So  far  did  she  carry  her  pretensions 
that,  if  any  other  of  the  cows  entered  the  byre  before  her, 
she  would  refuse  to  enter.  .  .  .  She  would  draw  herself  up 
and  refuse  to  advance  in  spite  of  all  encouraging  words,' 
while  'her  whole  frame  swelled  with  anger  and  offended 
dignity.  ...  At  last  the  cows  within  [the  byre],  as  though 
conscious  that  they  had  forgotten  their  place,  began  to  come 
out,'  and  then  she,  '  with  an  evident  air  of  gratified  pride, 
strode  in  in  state.' l 

The  necessity  that  exists  among  many  social  animals  for 
government  by  a  leader  is  rendered  obvious  by  the  effects 
of  the  loss  of  a  chief.  What  these  results  are  in  the 
case  of  the  queen  bee  has  already  been  pointed  out.  But 
similar  results  follow  the  absence,  capture,  or  death  of  a 
leader  among  animals  much  higher  in  the  zoological  scale. 
Thus,  in  Eastern  caravans,  in  the  absence  of  the  horse- 
leader,  the  camels,  asses,  mules,  or  other  animals,  become 
restless  and  uneasy ;  they  stray  from  the  path,  and  disorder 
reigns  (Macgregor). 

In  every  herd  of  camels  there  is  a  master  bull,  who,  by 
his  strength,  '  keeps  his  younger  brethren  in  subjection.' 
Colonel  Warburton,  in  his  celebrated  '  Journey  Across  the 
Western  Interior  of  Australia,'  2  describes  how  he  suffered 
from  the  illness  of  one  of  these  master  bulls.  Insubordina- 
tion on  the  part  of  its  juniors  (camels)  was  the  immediate 
result,  each  'seeking  an  opportunity  of  asserting  his  own 
supremacy.' 

The  usual  function  of  animal  leaders  seems  to  be  that  of 
a  protector — to  direct  measures  of  defence  in  assault,  of  extri- 
cation or  escape  in  danger.  But  there  are  other  cases  in 
which  their  duties  are  rather  those  of  regulators  of  the  civil, 
social,  or  domestic  economy  of  the  communities  over  which 
they  preside.  Thus  Houzeau  describes  mayors  of  towns  or 
villages  among  prairie  dogs — mayors  who  grant  audiences, 
receive  visits  as  to  administrative  affairs — in  short,  discharge 

1  <  North  British  Daily  Mail,'  December  27,  1876. 
a  1875,  p.  213. 


ORGANISATIONS.  387 

and  regulate  public  business — and  he  tells  us,  moreover,  that 
these  governors  or  presidents  of  communities,  occasionally 
at  least,  excel  their  fellows  in  size  and  strength  as  well  as  in 
force  of  character. 

Whatever  be  the  character  or  duties  of  an  animal  leader, 
whether  he  be  military  or  civil,  ruling  during  peace  or  called 
to  the  front  by  some  great  emergency,  his  supremacy  is  duly 
acknowledged  by  those  whom  he  commands,  as  a  general 
rule,  so  long  as  he  can  make  good  his  claim  to  supre- 
macy or  show  a  proper  title  to  obedience,  deference,  and 
respect.  Whether  the  chief  be  a  member  of  the  same 
species,  or  belong  to  a  different  species  or  genus — whether 
he  be  man  himself  or  some  other  animal — there  is  the  same 
kind  of  subordination  to  a  superior,  of  subjection  to  com- 
mand and  rule,  of  appreciation  of  superiority  in  the  form  of 
constituted  authority.  This  sort  of  respect  and  obedience 
includes  that  which  is  shown  in  many  cases  by  the  young 
to  parents  or  elders. 

All  this  is  the  rule ;  but  it  is  one  that  has  frequent  ex- 
ceptions ;  for,  as  has  already  been  seen,  rebellion  against 
constituted  authority  is  far  from  uncommon.  Such  insubordi- 
nation occurs  in  a  variety  of  forms.  For  instance,  there  is 
frequently  a  refusal  of  obedience  to  man  on  the  part  of  the 
dog,  horse,  elephant,  or  other  animals  that  are  usually  sub- 
missive. Frequently,  however,  an  obvious  and  intelligible 
reason  is  to  be  found  for  such  disobedience  either  in  ill- 
usage  by  man  or  in  disease  on  the  part  of  the  animal.  Thus 
rebellion  against  tyranny,  oppression,  injustice,  or  other 
forms  of  ill-usage  is  as  legitimate,  and  even  commendable, 
in  other  animals  as  in  man — the  pity  being,  in  the  case  of 
other  animals,  that  it  is  man  too  frequently  who  is  their 
tyrant  or  oppressor,  the  cruel  despot  who  has  not  the  sense 
to  consider  even  his  own  personal  interests  in  the  govern- 
ment of  subject  animals. 

In  the  case  of  animal  leaders  of  all  kinds  there  is  a  dis- 
tinct specialisation  of  duty,  work,  or  business,  a  very  decided 
division  of  labour.  But  this  division  of  labour — this  alloca- 
tion of  work  or  duty — occurs  among  the  lower  animals  in  a 
great  many  other,  even  more  familiar  forms.  Thus  it  is 


388  ORGANISATIONS. 

illustrated  in  the  appointment  from  among  members  of  a 
community  of — 

1.  Sentinels,  sentries,  vedettes,  outposts,  patrols,  guards, 
or  watchmen  of  all  kinds. 

2.  Soldiers,  labourers,  or  artisans,  nurses  or  foragers. 

3.  Different  ranks  of  officers  among  their  soldiers,  in- 
cluding generals,  aides-de-camp,  and  adjutants. 

4.  Delegates,  ambassadors,  or  other  forms  of  representa- 
tives or  reporters,  spies,  scouts,  commissioners,  pioneers. 

5.  Officers  of  justice — including  executioners,  advocates, 
judges  and  jury. 

6.  Koyal  personages,   with  their   officers   or    courtiers, 
bodyguard,  and  other  attendants — 

7.  As  well  as  in  the  relative  duties  or  occupations  of  male 
and  female  parents,  and — 

8.  In   the    appropriate   and   harmonious  playing  of  its 
part  by  each  individual  of  the  group. 

Such  appointments  imply,  in  certain  cases  at  least,  the 
assignation  of  a  special  duty  to  each  of  a  group  of  animals, 
there  being  evidence  further  that  there  is  frequently  an 
adaptation  of  the  special  work  to  be  performed  to  the  special 
ability  of  a  given  individual  to  perform  it. 

Sentinels  or  guards  are  regularly  posted  at  appropriate 
times  and  places  by  a  large  number  of  animals — including 
the  prairie  dog  (Gillmore,  Houzeau),  wild  horse  (Watson), 
swan  (Watson),  cockatoo  of  Australia  (Baden  Powell),  rooks 
(Watson),  silver-eye  (bird)  of  New  Zealand  (Buller),  fla- 
mingo, shag,  and  many  other  birds  (*  Percy  Anecdotes ' ), 
zebra  (Baird),  whistler  marmot  (Watson),  common  marmot 
(Wood),  Calif ornian  quail  as  naturalised  in  New  Zealand 
(Tinne),  moufflon  and  other  sheep  (Youatt  and  Watson), 
Alpine  marmot  (Baird  and  Houzeau),  certain  monkeys 
(Cassell),  Greenland  and  other  seals  (Cunningham),  wild 
African  cattle,  bobac  (Watson),  chamois  and  other  antelopes 
(Watson  and  Baker),  guanaco  (Darwin),  Texan  and  other 
ants  (Darwin,  Huber,  Figuier),  certain  wasps  (Kirby,  Spence, 
and  Wood). 

These  guardians  of  the  public  safety  are  appointed 
usually  for  some  of  the  following  reasons,  or  under  some  of 
the  following  circumstances  : — 


ORGANISATIONS.  .,  389 

1.  At  night,  or  during  the  sleep  of  the  flock  or  herd,  to 
guard  against  surprise. 

2.  During  feeding,  rest  on  a  march,  or  pastimes. 

3.  In  war,  on  the  march  or  halt,  in  camp  or  bivouac — 
here  also  to  prevent  surprise. 

It  is  their  duty  to  sound  or  give  the  alarm  on  the 
approach  of  an  enemy,  or  the  threatening  of  any  danger. 
If  a  sentinel  fail  in  this  duty,  for  instance,  by  being  cap- 
tured or  destroyed  before  he  can  perform  it,  the  capture  of  a 
whole  herd  may  become  easy.  Thus  the  German  Arctic 
Expedition  inform  us  that  Greenland  seals  '  set  a  watch 
before  they  go  to  sleep,  which  watch  being  killed,  the  whole 
herd  may  often  be  taken.'  In  such  a  case,  however,  it 
may  be  that  the  watchman  is  also  a  leader,  in  whose  ab- 
sence the  same  kind  of  helplessness  from  mental  confusion 
and  panic  ensues  as  in  the  case  of  bees  and  some  other 
animals. 

In  connection  with  the  appointment  of  sentinels  the 
following  points  have  to  be  noticed : — 

1.  That,  as  in  the  case  of  leaders,  the  animals  selected 
are  almost  invariably  males. 

2.  That  every  advantage  is  taken  of  elevated  ground 
commanding  a  view  on  all  sides. 

3.  That  the  animal  appointed  is  implicitly  trusted  by  the 
rest ;  it  has  a  specific  duty  to  discharge,  and  it  performs  it 
conscientiously. 

4.  There  must  therefore  be  an  appreciation  of  the  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  danger,  as  well  as  an  idea  of  duty  in  relation 
to  that  danger. 

Certain  African  antelopes  place  sentries — generally  bulls — 
while  they  are  grazing,  and  these  sentries  take  up  their  posts 
on  the  summits  of  ant-hills,  which  form  the  only  heights  in 
certain  parts  of  the  plains  of  the  Nile.  Their  occupancy  of 
such  watch-towers  is,  however,  unfortunate  or  themselves 
in  presence  of  the  sportsman,  to  whom  they  thus  readily 
become  a  marked  prey  (Baker). 

Californian  quails — as  naturalised  in  New  Zealand — 
<  always  keep  a  sentry  perched  on  the  stump  of  a  neigh- 
bouring tree,  to  give  them  timely  warning  of  the  approach 


390  ¥  ORGANISATIONS. 

of  strangers  '  (Tinne).  Ant  guards  open  and  shut  gates  and 
awaken  sleepers  (Huber). 

Spies  or  scouts  are  employed  by  various  animals,  in- 
cluding the  elephant  (Watson  and  Houzeau)  and  the  wild 
horse,  the  swallow  ('Percy  Anecdotes')  and  the  loxia  (another 
bird)  (Pierquin),  and  the  ant  (Figuier).  These  scouts  have 
to  make  investigations  and  reports ;  in  the  case  of  the  ele- 
phant, for  instance,  they  have  to  look  out  for  pitfalls  (Hou- 
zeau). Hence  it  is  that,  as  in  the  case  of  sentinels,  old, 
experienced,  sagacious,  cautious,  observant  animals  are  se- 
lected. 

Illustrations  of  a  very  different  kind  of  successful  playing 
a  part  are  to  be  found  in  the  various  performances  of  trained 
animals  in  the  theatrical,  musical,  or  other  exhibitions  in 
which  dogs,  cats,  pigs,  horses,  and  various  birds,  such  as  the 
canary,  goldfinch,  and  linnet,  are  among  the  artists. 

Some  of  the  best  illustrations  of  an  adapted  division  of 
labour  occur  in  connection  with  the  important  phenomena 
of  co-operation — of  preconcerted  action  for  a  common  end  or 
object.  In  a  great  variety  of  ways  many  of  the  lower  animals 
recognise  and  act  upon  the  principle  that  union  is,  or  gives, 
strength.  They  form  combinations,  associations,  or  alliances, 
temporary  or  permanent,  for  a  great  number  of  very  specific 
purposes.  They  co-operate  willingly,  intelligently,  and 
successfully  not  only  with  each  other  but  with  man.  One 
of  the  most  obvious  effects  of  union  is  the  inspiration  of 
courage  and  confidence,  the  ability  to  dare  and  do,  in  behalf 
of  themselves  or  their  young,  things  that  they  would  never 
attempt  in  their  individual  capacities.  Even  timid  sheep, 
in  combination  in  a  body,  and  under  a  leader,  do  boldly 
what  they  would  never  do  individually — face  a  dog,  for 
instance,  or  even  chase  it  ignominiously  from  a  field  or 
pasture.  The  meek  cow  and  many  gentle,  peace-loving 
birds  are  capable  of  the  same  feats  of  courage  under  similar 
circumstances. 

The  simplest  forms  of  co-operation  with  each  other  are 
those  in  which  only  two  individuals  are  engaged,  though 
these  two  frequently  belong  to  different  species,  genera,  and 
even  orders  or  classes.  And  in  such  cases  the  assignation 
by  mutual  agreement  after  consultation  of  a  special  duty  to 


ORGANISATIONS.  391 

each  of  the  confederates  is  frequently  at  once  obvious  and 
successful.  Thus  Wood  tells  us  of  a  dog  and  raven  literally 
banting  in  couples,  the  bird  acting  as  driver  of  the  game — a 
hare — out  of  the  heather  into  the  open,  the  dog  then  pursuing. 
A  rat,  in  order  to  convey  a  potato  to  the  general  store  or 
nest,  *  stretched  himself  on  his  back  on  the  floor,  placed  the 
potato  on  his  chest,  and  kept  it  firmly  there  with  his  paws. 
Whereupon  his  companion  placed  his  tail  in  the  former's 
mouth  and  dragged  him  along  to  a  hole  that  was  in  the 
floor.  There  they  let  down  the  potato  and  followed  after  it 
themselves  '  (Stewart).  Nor  is  this  an  uncommon  instance 
of  one  animal  playing  the  part  of  a  cart  or  wheelbarrow, 
while  another  enacts  the  horse.  In  the  Alpine  marmot,  for 
instance,  we  are  told  that  while  certain  individuals  act  as 
reapers,  collectors,  and  porters,  others  make  themselves 
useful  as  waggons  and  horses  ('  Percy  Anecdotes '). 

We  know  that  various  baboons  and  other  apes,  spider 
and  other  monkeys,  make  chains,  suspension  bridges,  and 
ladders,  of  their  own  bodies,  by  joining  hands  or  clinging 
to  each  other  by  various  concatenations  of  paws  and  tails 
(Ulloa,  Cassell) — bridges  that  are  used  in  crossing  rivers. 
And,  though  not  quite  in  the  same  way,  what  is  virtually 
the  same  thing  is  done  by  bees  (Eendu)  and  ants,  so  that 
on  bridges  composed  of  the  bodies  of  the  latter — voluntarily 
sacrificed  for  the  purpose — whole  armies  of  their  fellows 
sometimes  cross  rivers  or  streams. 

A  certain  dog  and  cat  were  confederates  in  a  larder  theft. 
The  cat  by  its  mewing  called  the  dog  when  circumstances 
were  favourable — the  coast  clear — for  their  depredations.  On 
one  occasion  the  dog  was  followed,  and  the  cat  was  found, 
who,  « mounted  on  a  shelf,  and  keeping  with  one  foot  the 
cover  of  a  dish  partly  open,  was  throwing  down  to  him  with 
the  disengaged  paw '  some  enjoyable  good  things  ('Animal 
World'). 

Prairie  wolves,  which,  like  many  other  animals,  hunt 
their  prey  in  pairs,  in  attacking  the  bison  make  the  following 
arrangement : — One  makes  a  feint  at  the  bison's  head  while 
the  other  hamstrings  him.  And  inasmuch  as  the  post  of 
honour,  as  of  danger,  is  the  rear  assault,  it  is  entrusted  to 
the  most  experienced,  bravest  animal  (Gillmore). 


392  OEGANISATIONS. 

Two  taine  ravens  plundered  a  bird  trap — the  one  lifting 
up  the  lid,  the  other  removing  the  captured  bird  (Wood). 
In  another  case  a  wolf  drove  a  herd  of  gazelles  to  a  ravine 
in  which  two  of  its  comrades  were  concealed  in  ambush. 
In  a  third  instance  different  posts  as  to  the  locality  to  be 
occupied  were  allotted  to  each  of  a  pack  of  six  wolves  that 
co-operated  to  entrap  a  herd  of  Indian  antelopes. 

Co-operation  on  a  large  scale — on  the  part  of  large  num- 
bers of  individuals,  whether  of  the  same  or  of  different 
species  and  genera — includes  the  convention,  at  special 
times  and  places,  of  convocations,  conferences,  congrega- 
tions, or  assemblies  for  the  following  or  other  specific  ends : — 

1.  Judicial — for  the  trial  and  punishment  of  offenders. 

2.  Military — for  the  holding  of  councils  of  war. 

3.  Recreational — for  the  celebration  of  pastimes,  sports, 
or  games  of  various  kinds. 

4.  Migrational — for  conference  as  to  the  time  and  man- 
ner of  migration. 

5.  Defensive — for  mutual  protection,  security  or  safety. 

6.  Industrial — for  the  repair  of  damage  to  public  pro- 
perty. 

7.  Marauding — for  the  acquisition  of  plunder  or  booty. 

8.  Food-seeking  or  foraging. 

9.  Emigration  and  colonisation. 

10.  Nuptial — for  courtship  and  marriage. 

11.  Hybernation. 

12.  Criminal — as  for  theft. 

13.  The  rescue  of  their  fellows  from  captivity  or  danger. 
One  of  the   most  interesting   features   of  co-operation 

among  the  lower  animals  is  rotation  of  duty  or  privilege — 
the  taking  by  turn  work,  food,  or  drink.  In  drinking,  various 
sand-grouse  of  South  Africa  (species  of  Pterocles  and  Ptero- 
churus)  '  do  not  rush  simultaneously  to  the  pool,  but  each 
one  waits  its  turn,  the  first  comers  having  the  precedence.' 
The  same  is  the  case  with  the  pintado  or  wild  Guinea  fowl 
of  Damara  and  Namaqua  Land,  the  large  flocks  of  which,  on 
approaching  water,  '  go  to  work  most  systematically,'  so  that 
all  may  have  in  turn  access  (Andersson).  In  the  same  way 
wild  geese  and  ducks,  starlings  and  other  birds,  take  turns 


ORGANISATIONS.  393 

in  feeding,  those  in  the  rear  flying  to  the  front  in  succes- 
sion, so  that  all  may  have  a  fair  and  equal  chance  of  food- 
supply. 

Dog-hyzenas,  when  hunting  in  packs  South  African  ante- 
lopes, relieve  each  other  when  fatigued,  'the  leading  hounds 
falling  to  the  rear  ....  when  others,  who  have  been 
husbanding  their  strength,  come  up,'  according  to  Gordon 
Gumming.  On  a  similar  principle  relays  as  well  as  reserves 
are  used  in  various  kinds  of  work — military  or  other — so  as 
to  avoid  the  exhaustion  of  important  individuals  and  allow 
suitable  intervals  of  rest  and  refreshment.  Among  foraging 
and  leaf-cutting  ants  there  are  regular  relays  of  porters  in 
conveying  food  (Belt).  Parent  woodpeckers  take  their  turn 
at  work,  the  resting  one  singing  to  the  labouring  mate 
by  way  of  encouragement  or  as  an  expression  of  love. 
In  war  reinforcements  are  kept  in  readiness,  sought  or 
ordered,  and  sent,  implying  an  understanding  that  aid  is,  or 
may  be,  needed,  and  of  what  kind,  in  what  way,  at  what 
time  and  place,  and  for  what  reason  or  object. 

Another  pleasing  feature  connected  with  unity  of  action 
in  the  lower  animals  is  that  they  have  the  good  sense  and 
good  feeling — by  no  means  always  present  in  the  case  of 
*  superior '  man — before  a  common  enemy,  or  in  presence  of 
a  common  danger,  or  for  a  common  good,  to  forget  or  thrust 
aside  all  their  individual,  family,  caste,  clan,  or  tribal  quar- 
rels or  feuds  of  all  kinds.  Here  again,  as  in  so  many  other 
cases,  they  feel  that  their  safety — it  may  be  their  very 
existence — depends  on  that  strength,  that  bold  front  which 
the  union  of  numbers  gives  ;  and  however  ready  they  are  at 
other  times  to  give  vent  to  their  petty  passions  and  express 
their  individual  animosities,  they  recognise  the  inexpediency 
or  impropriety  of  doing  so  at  a  time  when  all  effort  requires 
to  be  concentrated  in  one  direction.  Eavens  forget  their 
individual  hates  over  a  common  prey,  so  that  they  consent  to 
share  booty  even  with  their  enemies.  There  is  no  ran- 
cour, grudge,  or  temper  shown  if  the  food-supply  be  abun- 
dant (Watson). 

The  making  of  common  cause  often  depends  upon  what  is 
entitled  to  be  considered  a  veritable  esprit  de  corps — for 


394  ORGANISATIONS. 

instance,  in  the  case  of  the  street  dogs  of  Constantinople, 
whose  clans,  castes,  factions,  or  tribes  resemble  in  many 
respects  the  human  clans  among  the  Scotch  Highlanders 
prior  to,  and  even  during,  the  eighteenth  century.  Among 
these  Eastern  dogs  of  the  present  day  *  hostile  factions ' 
fight  out  their  feuds  at  night,  when  the  streets  are  deserted 
by  mankind.  But  an  *  injury,  however  well  deserved,  in- 
flicted upon  an  individual  is  taken  up  with  great  esprit  de 
corps  as  a  common  cause  by  a  whole  clan.' 

As  in  man,  specialisation  of  work  has  its  disadvantages. 
Thus  Hogg,  the  Ettrick  Shepherd,  says,  '  An  exceedingly 
good  sheep-dog  attends  to  nothing  else  but  that  particular 
branch  of  business  to  which  he  is  bred.  His  whole  capacity 
is  exerted  and  exhausted  on  it.'  One  result  of  this  is,  that 
though  he  may  do  the  one  thing  well,  '  he  is  of  little  avail 
in  miscellaneous  matters,  whereas  a  very  indifferent  cur 
bred  about  the  house  and  accustomed  to  assist  in  everything 
will  often  put  the  more  noble  breed  to  disgrace  in  those 
paltry  services.'  In  other  words,  the  nondescript  or  mongrel 
cur,  untrained  hanger-on,  is  really  more  *  generally  useful,' 
both  to  itself  and  to  man,  than  the  highly-bred,  specially- 
trained  collie — a  fact  calculated  to  be  comforting  to  human 
as  well  as  animal  mediocrity. 

Co-operation  with  man  is  more  or  less  familiar  in  the  case 
of  the  dog,  horse,  ass,  mule,  elephant,  cow,  monkey,  fishing 
cormorant,  falcon,  and  a  host  of  other  animals  that  minister 
to  his  comforts  or  pleasures.  These  animals  become  man's 
confederates,  accomplices,  partners,  associates — for  instance, 
in — 

1 .  Various  industrial  or  other  labours,  such  as — 

a.  Dragging  or  drawing  the  plough,  cart,  or  car- 

riage. 

b.  Acting  as  beasts  of  burden,  or — 

c.  As  riding  animals. 

2.  Various  forma  of  crime — such  as — 

a.  Theft  of  all  kinds — from  shop-lifting,  sheep- 
stealing,  poaching,  brigandage,  burglary, 
smuggling,  up  to  highway  robbery. 

I.  Murder. 


ORGANISATIONS.  395 

3.  The  detection  of  human  crime — such  as  theft,  rob- 
bery, and  murder. 

4.  Life-saving  in  shipwreck  and  otherwise. 

5.  Man's  sports — the  race  and  chase  especially,  but  even 
cricket  and  other  games. 

6.  Human  wars— as  in  the  case  of  military  elephants, 
horses,  oxen,  and  dogs. 

7.  Man's  judicial  or  other  forms  of  punishment  of  fellow- 
man. 

Successful  co-operation  with  man  implies — 

1.  A  knowledge  of  man's — 

a.  Object. 

6.  Language ;  and  the — 
c.  Means  by  which   he    is   endeavouring  to 
effect  an  object. 

2.  An  appreciation  of  the  nature  of  the  occupations 

in  which  they  are  conjointly  engaged — in- 
cluding their  criminality  or  illegality. 

3.  A  consciousness  of  the  importance  or  value  of 

their  own  share  in  the  joint  labour — of  the 
part  they  are  called  upon  to  play — including  a 
feeling  of  pride  or  honour  at  being  called  upon 
or  permitted  to  give  aid  or  service  to  man,  a 
sense  of  participancy  in  his  pursuits,  schemes, 
intrigues,  sports. 

4.  An  estimation  of  success  and  failure,  with  their 

personal  bearings  or  results. 

5.  A  distinct  conception  of  duty,  with  fidelity,  in- 

telligence, perseverance  in  its  discharge. 

The  want  of  co-operation  with  each  other,  or  with  man, 
at  the  proper  time,  and  when  circumstances  call  for  it,  is 
productive  of  the  same  kind  of  results  that  occur  in  man — 
viz.  confusion,  panic,  defeat,  and  loss  of  life  or  property. 
This  is  specially  observable  when  .organised  and  unorganised 
bodies  come  into  collision — the  one,  though  small,  putting 
to  rout  the  other,  though  large,  in  numbers.  Thus  the  com- 
pact charge  of  a  few  men  on  bison  herds  creates  immediate 
confusion,  panic,  and  flight  in  the  latter  (Houzeau). 

Frustration  or  failure  of  the  best  intended  and  best  con- 


396  ORGANISATIONS. 

ceived  efforts  for  an  animal's  good  is  the  common  result  of  its 
non-cooperation,  for  instance,  with  man ;  and  this  non-co- 
operation is  the  natural  fruit  of  a  non-understanding  or  a 
misunderstanding  of  man's  object.  Without  intelligent 
understanding  on  an  animal's  part  of  the  object  aimed  at 
there  can  be  no  confidence  in  the  person  offering  an  assist- 
ance that  is  not  requested,  however  much  it  may  be  re- 
quired j  and  without  complete  confidence  in  the  operator 
or  co-operator  there  can  obviously  be  no  hearty  and  efficient 
co-operation. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

LA\V  AND   PUNISHMENT. 

THOUGH  they  have  not  the  means  that  man  possesses  of 
giving  them  form  in  print  or  writing,  or  even  of  giving  them 
expression  orally,  certain  animals,  nevertheless,  have  laws 
that  regulate  their  conduct,  rules  established  by  authority 
and  custom — sometimes  of  a  very  definite  kind — that  guide 
their  procedure  under  given  circumstances.  Authors  have 
described  even  the  existence  of  systems  or  codes  of  laws  or 
of  rules  among  various  animals,  and  have  professed  their 
ability  to  understand  or  interpret  them.  Thus  Mrs.  Burton 
says  of  the  pariah  dogs  of  Damascus,  *  Their  habits  are 
regulated  by  laws  of  their  own.  I  have  grown,  in  the 
solitude  of  Salahiyeh,  to  learn  them.'  Animals  assert  or 
maintain,  defend  and  transgress,  their  own  laws,  and  they 
suffer  the  penalties  of  such  transgression. 

The  following  are  illustrations  of  the  kinds  of  law  or  rule 
that  guide  the  actions,  individual  or  corporate,  of  certain 
of  the  lower  animals  :  viz.  those  relating  to — 

1.  The  administration  of  public  affairs  in  the  villages  or 
communities  of  the  prairie  dog  (Houzeau). 

2.  Territorial  or  district  government— including  frontier 
laws — in  the  street  dogs  of  Constantinople,  Damascus,  or 
other  Eastern  towns  (Burton,  Low,  Watson). 

3.  The  common  laws  for  the  common  good  that  charac- 
terise wasps  (Eendu). 

4.  The  laws  of  battle  among  various  belligerent  species 
or  genera. 

5.  The  law  or  rule  of  might — of  the  strong  over  the 
weak. 


398  LAW  AND  PUNISHMENT. 

6.  The  law  or  rule  of  right. 

7.  That  of  constituted  authority,  which  may  or  may  not 
involve  that  of  jnight  and  right,  either  or  both. 

8.  Laws  of  etiquette — including  those  regulating  pre- 
cedence. 

9.  Lynch  law — the  administration   of  punishment    for 
offences  without  any  form  of  trial. 

10.  Possession. 

Hence  some  animals  may  be  described  as  possessing  what 
are  virtually  national,  provincial,  territorial,  proprietary, 
public,  domestic,  communal,  military,  civil,  criminal,  social, 
conjugal,  moral,  or  other  laws. 

What  may  well  be  called  the  law  of  might,  the  rule  of 
the  strongest,  prevails  throughout  the  animal  kingdom — 
including  man.  The  dominance  of  the  powerful  over  the 
weak,  of  tyranny  or  bullyism,  is  everywhere  common.  But 
mere  physical  or  corporeal  strength  does  not  necessarily  or 
always  prevail  per  se.  In  animals  that  occupy  positions  of 
command  or  authority,  physical  is  usually  associated  with 
mental  superiority;  and  mental  acumen  in  the  weak — the 
ingenious  expedients  to  which  superior  sagacity  gives  rise 
— may,  and  frequently  do,  outmatch  mere  physical  force. 
Thus  the  huge  Newfoundland  dog  succumbs  sometimes  to  the 
address  and  adroitness  of  the  puny  ape,  which  makes  a  beast 
of  burden  of  it,  and  rides  on  its  back  commandingly,  as  man 
does  on  the  horse  (Houzeau). 

Right,  however,  is  respected  as  well  as  might,  though  it 
is  also  invaded,  and  has  to  be  defended.  The  following  are 
illustrations  of  the  vested  rights  of  animals  as  recognised  by 
each  other,  viz.  those  relating  to — 

1.  Property  of  all  kinds,  including — 
a.  Food,  prey,  booty. 
&.  Nests  or  other  forms  of  abode. 

c.  Young  or  eggs. 

d.  Carriageable  or  married  females. 

e.  Beats,   districts,    hunting-grounds,   quarters,    or 

boundaries. 

/.  Trappings  or  insignia  of  office. 
g.  Slaves  or  servants. 


LAW  AND  PUNISHMENT.  399 

h.  Other  forms  or  kinds  of  property. 

2.  Eank  or  status,  with  its  accompanying  respect  or 
deference. 

They  may  therefore  be  said  to  have  rights  conjugal, 
territorial,  proprietary,  parental,  filial,  which  they  are  called 
upon  to  assert  and  maintain,  and  which  they  also  usurp 
or  infringe.  Such  rights,  as  in  man,  are  individual  or  cor- 
porate ;  they  form  the  subject  of  dispute  and  struggle. 

Wrongs  are  equally  admitted  and  redressed  in  certain 
cases,  whether  they  relate  to  individuals  or  communities. 

For  all  kinds  of  constituted  authority  various  animals 
have  respect,  and  they  show  it  by  their  obedience  in  certain 
cases,  while  they  mutiny  or  rebel  against  it  in  others.  Some 
of  them  have  systems  or  forms  of  government — including  the 

1.  Monarchical  in  the  bee. 

2.  Republican,  communal,  or  communistic  in  ants. 

3.  Patriarchal — that  of  leaders   or  chiefs     in  the  wild 
horse,  ass,  and  elephant. 

4.  Parental — in  dogs,  cats,  monkeys  and  apes,  and  many 
other  animals. 

5.  Domestic — in  monogamous  animals. 

6.  Social. 

The  dog  and  other  animals  may  be  trained  to  respect  the 
authority  or  supremacy  of  man,  to  obey  his  laws — that  is, 
the  rules,  unwritten,  unprinted,  even  unspoken  frequently, 
that  he  lays  down  nevertheless  for  their  guidance.  These 
laws  are  understood,  and  evaded  or  infringed,  when  they  are 
not  obeyed.  To  the  dog,  horse,  elephant,  and  other  tame  or 
domestic  animals,  indeed,  man's  will  may  be  said  to  be  their 
laiv.  They  recognise  him  as  their  lawgiver,  and  soon  learn 
to  distinguish  what  is  forbidden  from  what  is  permitted  by 
him.  Not  only  so,  but  certain  animals  are  trained  to  act 
efficiently  as  administrators  of  man's  laws,  as  his  police,  or  his 
executioners.  Thus  elephant  and  dog  police  or  executioners 
have  been  taught  to  capture  runaways  or  deserters,  whether 
these  are  ponies,  sheep,  or  men,  and  to  punish  them  summa- 
rily— in  the  case  of  man  by  crushing  to  death  or  throttling 
(Watson). 

Wood  asserts  that  the  laws  of  precedence  and  etiquette 
27 


400  LAW  AND  PUNISHMENT. 

among  cows  are  '  as  clearly  defined  as  those  of  any  European 
Court.  Every  cow  knows  her  own  place  and  keeps  it.  She 
will  not  condescend  to  take  a  lower,  and  would  not  be  allowed 
to  take  a  higher.'  We  know,  moreover,  that  military  horses 
and  elephants  are  great  sticklers  for  rank,  insisting  on  occu- 
pying that  place  in  processions  or  pageants  to  which  they 
believe  their  own  rank  or  that  of  their  riders  entitles  them. 

One  of  the  evidences  commonly  adduced  of  the  reign  of 
law  among  the  lower  animals,  as  in  man,  is  the  fact  that 
certain  birds  at  least  have  what  are,  or  what  appear  to  be, 
regular  judicial  proceedings,  regular  trials  by  judge  and 
before  jury  of  culprits  against  law.  Illustrations  of  such 
trials  are  to  be  found  in  the  absurdly  so-called  *  parliaments' 
of  rooks,  crows,  or  other  birds. 

The  various  authors  who  have  described  them,  and  who 
profess  to  be  able  to  interpret  the  curious  phenomena,  speak 
of  the  vast  assemblages  of  birds  of  the  same  species  at  some 
given  point  and  at  some  given  time,  the  birds  coming  from 
all  points  of  the  compass.  In  the  centre  is  placed  a  prisoner ; 
his  aspect,  look,  attitude,  point  him  out  frequently  as,  in  his 
own  estimation,  a  culprit.  Advocates  address  the  audience ; 
there  are  even  pleadings,  consultations,  and  deliberations. 
At  last  a  judgment  is  come  to,  sentence  is  passed,  and  popu- 
lar as  well  as  judicial  vengeance  is  inflicted  with  wonderful 
unanimity  and  co-operation.  The  whole  stages  of  the  pro- 
cedure, in  fact,  resemble  in  miniature  and  in  pantomime 
those  of  our  own  law  courts.  Hence  some  authors  speak  of 
such  assemblies  as  'courts,'  and  the  natives  of  India  de- 
scribe certain  gatherings  of  the  Indian  crow  as  of  this 
character. 

In  these  courts  or  parliaments  of  the  Indian  crow  the 
birds  form  a  ring  around  one  individual,  'who  appears  to 
have  been  an  offender  against  some  of  the  rules  of  their 
society.'  Then  he  is  attacked  suddenly  by  five  or  six  of  his 
fellows,  'pecking  at  him  and  striking  at  him  with  their 
wings '  (Wood) . 

Crow  parliaments  in  Shetland  have  been  described  by 
Edmonstone  and  Saxby,  who,  however,  differently  interpret 
the  facts  observed,  while  the  facts  themselves  are  not  the 


LAW  AND  PUNISHMENT.  401 

same  as  noted  by  these  competent  naturalists.  In  all  such 
narratives  it  may  be  difficult,  but  it  is  necessary,  to  separate 
Fact  from  inference,  or  interpretation.  According  to  Edmon- 
stone,  the  facts  are — that  there  is  an  assemblage  of  large 
numbers  of  the  same  species  ;  that  there  are  certain  noisy 
proceedings ;  that  one  or  two  individuals  are  put  to  death 
by  the  mass  of  their  fellows ;  and  that  then  there  is  a  quiet 
breaking  up  of  the  congregation.  The  conclusions,  which 
may  or  may  not  be  correct,  are,  that  there  is  trial  by  jury  of 
a  criminal,  characterised  by  formal  legal  procedure,  and 
followed  directly  by  what  is  considered  suitable — that  is 
usually  capital — punishment. 

Dr.  Saxby,  on  the  other  hand,  also  of  Shetland,  the 
brother-in-law  of  Dr.  Edmonstone,  and  the  author,  more- 
over, of  a  volume  on  the  '  Birds  of  Shetland,'  takes  quite  a 
different  view  of  the  character  of  the  '  craa's  court '  of  the 
hooded  crow,  in  spring,  in  thesja  northern  islands.  He  pro- 
fesses to  have  seen  '  nothing  particularly  worthy  of  mention, 
with  the  exception  of  occasional  shortlived  squabble,  such 
as  is  constantly  occurring  in  any  large  flock  of  birds/  And  he 
adds,  '  I  believe,  however,  that  a  considerable  amount  of 
courting  takes  place  at  these  meetings,  having  noticed  that 
pairing  takes  place  very  soon  after  the  dispersal  of  the 
flock.' 

The  probability  is  that  Edmonstone  and  Saxby,  Houzeau, 
Wood,  and  the  other  authors  who  have  described  such  courts 
or  parliaments,  have  in  some  cases  described  very  different 
kinds  of  assemblies.  There  is  every  reason  for  believing  a  few 
to  be  judicial,  others  to  be  amatory  or  nuptial,  while,  as 
regards  the  character  of  some,  it  has  been  shown  in  the 
chapter  on  '  Unexplained  Phenomena,'  that  at  present  we 
know  nothing  satisfactory. 

Wood  describes  rook  parliaments.  *  In  the  middle  '  of 
the  assemblage  in  one  case  *  was  one  bird  looking  very 
downcast  and  wretched.  Two  more  rooks  took  their  place 
at  its  side,  and  then  a  vast  amount  of  chattering  went  on.' 
Ultimately,  the  unfortunate  central  bird  was  pecked  nearly 
to  pieces  and  left  mangled  and  helpless  on  the  ground.  In 
such  a  case  we  are  led  to  infer,  though  our  conclusion  may 


402  LAW  AND  PUNISHMENT. 

be  erroneous,  that  we  have  to  deal  with  an  accused,  con- 
victed, condemned  criminal ;  official  accusers  ;  and  the  sum- 
mary execution  of  a  judicial  sentence.  Marcgrave  long  ago 
described  such  assemblies  of  rooks,  with  their  addresses  and 
debates,  but  his  account  has  probably  been  regarded,  as  so 
many  of  such  narratives  are,  apocryphal. 

The  stork,  too,  is  represented  by  Watson  as  having,  or 
holding,  trial  by  jury,  public  conventions  at  which  harangues 
or  speeches  are  delivered,  accusations  made,  defences  offered, 
by  public  orators  and  other  officials,  while  the  mass  of  the 
audience  takes  a  lively  interest  in  the  proceedings.  Consult- 
ations are  held,  sentence  is  pronounced,  and  capital  punish- 
ment inflicted  for  such  supposed  crimes  as  the  hatching  of 
a  gosling.  The  sparrow  is  another  bird  that  administers 
public  punishment  to  offenders  after  holding  general  councils, 
the  proceedings  of  which  are  marked  by  much  agitation, 
tumult,  and  clamour  (Watson^. 

The  public  trial  of  a  prisoner  before  a  public  court  by  the 
aid  of  advocates  has  also  been  mentioned  as  occurring  among 
Barbary  apes  (Cassell). 

All  such  incidents,  so  far  as  they  are  authentic,  furnish 
illustrations  of  public  punishment  for  public  misdemeanour. 
But  punishment  of  animals  by  each  other  has  not  always  or 
generally  this  public  character.  Usually  it  is  private,  and 
of  an  individual  by  an  individual,  as  in  the  correction  of  the 
young  by  parents.  It  may  be  said  to  have  a  public  character 
in  those  not  uncommon  cases  in  which  a  number  of  indivi- 
duals— usually,  but  not  necessarily,  of  the  same  species — co- 
operate for  the  destruction  or  persecution  of  a  common  enemy 
— a  case  in  which  any  one  of  the  co-operating  individuals 
would  have  no  power  of  inflicting  punishment. 

The  grounds  on  which  animals  inflict  punishment  on  each 
other  include  the  following  : — 

I.  In  young — 

1.  Ignorance,    inexperience,   stupidity,   awkward- 

ness. 

2.  Forwardness,  impudence,  or  impertinence. 

3.  Refractoriness. 

4.  Theft. 


LAW  AND  PUNISHMENT.  403 

5.  Various  forms  of  ill-temper. 

6.  Want  of  filial  deference. 

7.  Mischievousness. 

8.  All  kinds  of  annoyance. 

9.  All  faults  of  omission  or  commission. 
II.  In  adults — 

10.  Errors  of  all  kinds. 

11.  Conjugal  or  other  erotic  offences. 

12.  Kivalry. 

13.  Cowardice  or  faintheartedness. 

14.  Transgressions  of  laws  of  all  kinds,  including 

all  forms  of  crime. 

15.  Idleness  or  laziness — including  the  shirking  of 

work  or  duty. 

16.  Malingering. 

1 7.  All  invasion  of  rights  or  privileges. 

18.  Straggling  or  wandering. 

19.  All  rebellion  against  constituted  authority. 

20.  All  forms  of  troublesomeness. 

Punishment  of  the  young  especially  has  frequently  an 
educational  and  salutary  object  or  character,  its  aim  being 
the  correction  of  bad  habits  of  all  kinds,  and  of  the  errors 
naturally  incident  to  inexperience,  ignorance,  thoughtless- 
ness, and  exuberance  of  feeling. 

The  modes,  means,  or  forms  of  punishment  adopted  are 
as  various  as  the  causes  or  reasons  for  punishment.  Thus 
they  include — 

1.  Capital  punishments  of  various  kinds — the  summary 
destruction  of  life  by — 

a.  Pecking  to  death  by  birds. 

b.  Buffeting — also  by  birds. 

c.  Worrying  by  dogs. 

d.  Precipitation. 

e.  Drowning. 
/.  Stinging. 

2.  Banishment   or    outlawry,  as  in  'rogue'   elephants; 
deposition,  or  other  forms  of  disgrace. 

3.  Corporal  chastisement,  by — 

a.  Blows  or  cuffs. 


404  LAW  AND  PUNISHMENT. 

b.  Bites. 

c.  Kicks. 

d.  Pinching. 

e.  Shaking. 

4.  Artificial  fright — as  by  pretended  drowning  or  worry- 
ing— a  ruse  sometimes  resorted  to  by  big  dogs  to  punish  the 
troublesomeness  of  little  ones. 

5.  Simple  reprimand,  rebuke,  reproof,   by  voice-sound, 
look,  or  otherwise. 

6.  Persecution — long  persisted  in  and  unremitting. 

7.  Practical  jokes — sometimes  of  a  very  cruel  kind. 

8.  Simple  repression  of  liberties — the  snubbing  or  putting 
down  of  all  kinds  of  presumption. 

9.  Threatening  or  pretending  this  or  that  form  of  violence 
to  the  person. 

A  few  illustrations  of  these  conjoint  grounds  and  modes 
of  punishment  are  desirable.  A  big  dog,  after  rescuing  a 
little  one  from  drowning,  '  cuffed  it  first  with  one  paw,  and 
then  with  the  other'  (Wood).  The  cat,  too,  cuffs  with  its 
paws  the  kitten  that  is  forward,  impudent,  lazy,  or  stupid ; 
while  the  dog-parent  treats  its  pup  under  similar  circum- 
stances with  a  bite  or  a  growl.  Of  dogs  in  the  East,  a  cor- 
respondent of  the  *  Animal'  World '  says  :  *  If  a  dog  in  the 
interior  of  the  city  makes  himself  disagreeable,  he  is  taken 
up  by  the  scruff  of  the  neck  and  carried  outside  the  city.  He 
is  never  known  to  return  to  his  old  haunts.  In  fact  he  is 
unable  to  do  so,  being  always  hindered  by  those  in  possession 
of  the  intervening  districts  from  passing  through  them.  He 
thus  remains  on  the  outside  of  the  city,  an  outcast  from  the 
dog  community,  a  pariah  among  dogs,  for  the  rest  of  his 
days.'  A  certain  dog  punished  a  companion  for  sheep- worry- 
ing (Watson),  and  other  dogs  punish  their  fellows  for  such 
offences — negative  or  positive — as  malingering,  shirking 
work,  theft,  and  provocation  or  annoyance  of  all  kinds. 

Dogs  in  the  East  punish  stragglers  from  their  own 
proper  territory  (Low).  Large  powerful  dogs  frequently 
correct  the  troublesomeness  of  small  weak  ones  by  temporary 
submersion  in  water,  to  all  degrees  short  of  drowning ;  this 


LAW  AND  PUNISHMENT.  405 

being  selected  perhaps  as  the  most  effectual  means,  the  most 
dreaded  kind,  of  punishment  (Watson). 

Baboons  chastise  their  young  for  impudence  or  want  of 
deference  (Cassell).  The  Rhesus  monkey  indulges  in  a 
practical  joke  of  a  diabolical  kind.  Having  caught  one  of  a 
flock  of  crows  that  have  been  annoying  it  by  pilfering  its 
food  or  otherwise,  it  plucks  the  poor  animal  alive,  and  then 
leaves  it  to  be  pecked  to  death  by  its  own  fellow-birds.  The 
Titi  monkey,  on  the  other  hand,  gives  its  companion  against 
whom  it  has  a  grudge  a  ducking  (Cassell).  The  leader  of  a 
band  or  troop  of  apes  punished  a  female  for  decoying  or 
seducing  the  males  (Pierquin).  A  young  baboon  had  been 
annoying  an  old  one  by  pulling  his  tail.  The  old  one  sud- 
denly turned  upon  his  tormentor,  chastised  him  with  cuffs 
or  blows,  and  finally  threw  the  shrieking  delinquent  over  his 
shoulder  and  bore  him  away  (Drayson). 

In  troops  of  wild  horses  stragglers  on  the  march  are 
punished  by  the  adjutants  ('Percy  Anecdotes  ').  Elephants 
both  threaten  and  punish  the  idle  and  stupid  ('Animal 
World  ').  A  fox  chastises  another  for  its  stupidity  in  missing 
its  chance  of  securing  prey  (Watson).  Bulls  punish  cows 
for  transgressing  boundary  lines  (Watson). 

The  cock  inflicts  vengeance  on  his  hen  for  conjugal 
infidelity — real  or  supposed.  Thus  he  punishes  her  for 
hatching  other  eggs  than  her  own,  though  these  alien  eggs 
may  have  been  substituted  for  her  own  by  man  for  experi- 
mental or  other  purposes.  She  may  have  committed  a 
simple  error  of  observation  in  not  distinguishing  other  eggs 
from  her  own.  Hers  may  be  the  mere  stupidity  of  ignorant 
innocence ;  while  he  commits  a  more  serious  error  of  infer- 
ence, suspicion,  and  jealousy — assuming  criminality  where 
there  is  none,  judging  from  first  and  false  appearances, 
rushing  hastily  to  a  conclusion  without  either  inquiry  or 
reflection. 

If  a  female  Patagonian  penguin  lets  her  egg  fall,  'the  male 
bird  chastises  her  without  pity'  (Pouchet),  apparently  for 
her  stupidity  or  awkwardness.  Conjugal  offences  are  fre- 
quently committed  by  birds — such  as  the  cock,  stork,  turkey, 


406  LAW  AND  PUNISHMENT. 

pigeon,  and  magpie — and  they  are  sometimes  summarily 
punished,  as  in  the  case  of  a  male  magpie,  whose  mate  had 
consorted  with  a  stranger  male  (Watson).  A  grey  lag  goose, 
whose  mate  had  been  killed  by  a  dog,  revenged  herself  upon 
the  latter  by  a  course  of  persistent  persecution,  subjecting  it  to 
incessant  worry.  Even  beetles  punish  each  other  by  thump- 
ing and  thrashing  (Wallace).  Kites  found  in  a  state  of 
alcoholic  intoxication  either  lose  caste  among  their  fellows 
or  are  unmercifully  pecked  to  death  by  them  (White).  A 
queen  hive  bee  '  having  laid  only  drone  or  male  eggs,  was 
stung  to  death  by  the  workers,  who  cast  her  body  out  of  the 
hive '  (Carpenter). 

While  animals  frequently  and  freely  punish  each  other 
for  a  great  variety  of  offences  and  in  a  great  variety  of  ways, 
in  certain  cases  they  also  punish  man  himself,  usually  in 
revenge  for  some  piece  of  cruelty,  but  also  occasionally  for 
man's  crimes  against  his  fellow-man.  Thus  a  male  swan, 
once  resident  in  St.  James's  Park,  London,  a  great  favourite 
of  Queen  Charlotte's,  seized  a  boy  that  had  been  teasing  it 
'  by  the  leg  of  his  trousers,  and  dragged  him  into  the  water 
up  to  his  knees'  (' Chambers's  Journal').  On  the  other 
hand,  dogs  and  cats  occasionally  attempt  the  murder  of  a 
master's  murderers,  and  in  other  practical  and  dangerous 
ways  they  resent  injury  inflicted  on  those  whom  they  love. 
In  the  one  case  we  have  retaliation  for,  or  repayment  of, 
annoyance  or  ill-usage ;  in  the  other,  the  fruit  of  love,  the 
repayment  of  kindly  usage  by  fierce  attack  on  a  human 
aggressor. 

Many  animals,  especially  young  ones,  feel  that  they 
deserve  the  punishment  inflicted,  and  punishment  is  usually 
proportionate  to  the  offence  and  suitable  to  the  age  and 
character  of  the  offender.  Thus  the  large  powerful  dog 
contents  itself  with  merely  frightening  the  small  cur  that 
annoys  it  by  snapping  or  snarling  about  its  heels.  The  huge 
Newfoundland  or  mastiff  gives  its  little  tormentor  a  good 
shake,  a  bite,  or  a  growl,  or  perchance  a  worrying  or  a 
ducking  in  or  under  watei.  Nay,  much  though  punishment 
may  be  deserved  by  such  a  tormentor,  the  animal  that  has 
been  tormented  not  unfrequently  shows  its  magnanimity  by 


LAW  AND  PUNISHMENT.  407 

refraining  from  punishment.  Apparently  such  animals  hold, 
with  magnanimous  authors  vexed  by  contemptible  critics, 
or  at  least  they  act  upon  the  principle,  that 

The  noblest  answer  unto  such 
Is  kindly  silence  when  they  brawl. 

The  elephant  is  satisfied  with  different  degrees  of  ven- 
geance according  to  the  nature  of  the  provocation  ;  in  other 
words,  its  placability  depends  upon  the  kind  and  amount  of 
annoyance  or  ill-usage  to  which  it  has  been  subjected.  On 
the  other  hand,  punishment  is  sometimes  inordinate,  dispro- 
portionate, unsuitable,  and  it  is  apt  to  be  so  wherever  the 
passions  are  unduly  excited,  whenever  the  desire  for  revenge, 
exasperation,  despair,  bereavement,  fear,  or  other  feelings  gain 
an  ascendancy  and  hurry  on  to  precipitate  action.  In  such 
cases  punishment  is  apt  to  be  characterised  by  its  fury, 
pitilessness,  mercilessness,  by  its  not  stopping  short  of  the 
death  of  the  victim,  and  even  by  indignities  to  its  murdered 
body. 

For  instance,  when  hens  attack  the  sparrow-hawk,  more 
than  mere  deterrent  or  corrective  punishment  is  aimed  at 
or  involved  (White).  The  long-suffering  fowls  give  vent  to 
long  pent-up  irritation ;  they  visit  upon  their  victim  their 
hereditary  or  ancestral,  as  well  as  their  individual,  hostility 
and  vengeance.  This  leads  to  the  remark  that,  as  in  man, 
the  innocent  frequently  suffer  for  the  misdeeds  of  the  guilty. 
The  unoffending  young  of  a  species  or  genus,  some  individual 
of  which  may  have  committed  a  serious  misdemeanour,  or 
whose  individuals  are  natural  enemies,  and  are  habitually 
committing  faults  of  aggression,  suffer  for  the  misdeeds  of 
their  ancestry,  parents,  species,  or  genus. 

The  particular  form  of  punishment  adopted  sometimes 
shows  much  ingenuity  in  the  adaptation  of  means  to  ends, 
and  this  ingenuity  may  take  the  shape  of  a  very  refined 
cruelty.  Thus  Watson  tells  us  of  the  blockade  of  a  usurping 
sparrow  by  a  company  of  swallows.  Such  an  incident  illus- 
trates the  frequency  and  efficiency  of  co-operation  or  combi- 
nation for  the  purpose  of  punishing  an  enemy. 

A  sparrow  having  taken  possession  of  a  marten's  nest, 


408  LAW  AND  PUNISHMENT. 

the  dislodged  martin  collected  thirty  or  forty  of  its  fellows, 
•who  dragged  out  the  intruder,  took  him  to  a  certain  grass- 
plot,  and  there  killed  him.  And  similar  co-operation  in 
similar  kinds  of  punishment  is  common  in  dealing  with  bird 
intruders.  The  basis  of  such  co-operation  is  a  feeling  of 
inability  singly  to  punish  an  offender,  and  a  knowledge  that 
union  gives  strength  as  well  as  courage,  and  can  effect 
readily  what  individual  effort  could  never  hope  to  achieve. 

In  certain  cases  a  weak  animal,  instead  of  seeking  the 
aid  of  a  number  of  its  fellows,  contents  itself  by  soliciting 
the  good  offices  of  one — a  sufficiently  powerful  and  brave  one 
— to  act  efficiently  as  its  own  substitute  in  the  execution  of 
vengeance.  And  small  dogs,  for  instance,  sometimes  show 
great  sagacity  in  their  selection  of  a  champion,  and  take 
great  pains  to  procure  him^  travelling  long  distances  for  the 
purpose. 

In  such  cases  the  animal  selected  appears  to  accept  the 
office  pressed  upon  it,  travels  with  its  oppressed  companion 
to  the  residence  of  the  bully  who  has  ill-used  that  companion, 
discharges  its  duty  of  severely  punishing  the  tyrant — perhaps 
by  throttling  or  worrying  him  to  death — and  then  goes  its 
way  to  its  home,  having  received,  we  cannot  doubt,  the 
thanks  of  the  befriended  animal. 


CHAPTER 

USE    OF  NATURAL   INSTRUMENTS. 

AMONG  the  many  supposed  points  of  difference  between 
man  and  other  animals  is  his  use  of  tools  and  weapons,  of 
instruments  of  all  kinds.  But  such  a  belief  and  such  an 
allegation  are  the  obvious  errors  of  thoughtlessness,  for  very 
little  consideration  is  required  to  show  that  the  lower  ani- 
mals, or  at  least  many  of  them,  employ — 

1.  Their  own  bodies,  or  portions  or  members  thereof,  as 
natural  instruments,  as  tools  or  weapons,  as  the  case  may  be. 

2.  Certain  natural  objects  to  which  they  have  access — 
for  instance,  sticks  and  stones. 

3.  Both  the  natural  instruments  of  their  own  bodies  or 
the  members  thereof,  and  other  natural  objects — as  tools  or 
weapons — in  the  most  effective  way. 

4.  They  select,  however,  the  most  suitable  natural  instru- 
ments for  their  special  purposes. 

5.  They  maintain  all  such  instruments  in  good  working 
order,  or  render  them  suitable  for  special  uses. 

6.  Further,  they  are  acquainted  with  the  applications  of 
many  of  the  instruments  constructed  and  used  by  man,  and 
they  behave  in  accordance  with  this  knowledge. 

7.  They  also  use  these  instruments  themselves,  and  in 
the  same  way  that  man  does. 

8.  They  substitute  those  of  man  for  their  own  natural 
instruments  when  they  find  the  former  at  once  more  acces- 
sible, more  convenient,  and  more  effective. 

9.  They  use  more  than  one  instrument  at  the  same  time, 
the  one  supplementing  or  assisting  the  other. 

It  will  appear  in  the  sequel  that  certain  animals  may  be 


410  USE  OF  NATURAL  INSTRUMENTS. 

said  to  be  tool-  or  weapon-makers,  just  as  they  are  indubit- 
ably tool-  or  weapon-users.  They  may  surely  be  said  so  far 
to  form  their  own  tools  or  weapons  when  they  break  off 
portions  of  the  stems  or  branches  of  trees,  stripping  the 
foliage  or  not,  as  may  be  desirable,  so  as  to  form  sticks, 
cudgels,  or  clubs,  fans  or  whisks,  sunshades,  bedclothes,  or 
huts,  or  when  the  chimpanzee  constructs  a  drum  out  of  a 
piece  of  dead  wood  (Houzeau). 

In  the  first  place,  then,  many  of  the  lower  animals  use 
either  their  whole  bodies  or  portions  of  them — such  as  the 
back,  shoulder,  arms  and  legs,  fingers,  toes,  or  claws,  hands, 
paws,  hoofs  or  feet,  cheeks,  mouth,  jaws  or  teeth,  beaks  or 
bills,  nose,  proboscis,  mandibles  or  antennae,  heads  or  horns, 
spines,  fins  or  flippers,  tails  or  wings,  spurs  or  other  appen- 
dages— either  as  tools  or  weapons,  as  circumstances  may 
require. 

The  Quadrmnana  use  their  arms  in  a  very  humanlike 
fashion  in  the  carrying  about  of  their  infants,  and  in  various 
kinds  of  embrace.  The  anthropoid  apes  carry  their  infants 
either  in  their  arms,  after  the  usual  European  fashion,  or 
perch  them  upon  their  backs  or  shoulders — the  latter  being 
customary  to  this  day  among  Egyptian  women,  as  I  have 
myself  seen.  The  orang-utan  swims  with  its  infant  perched 
on  one  shoulder,  using  one  of  its  arms  and  hands  to  hold 
the  infant  in  position  (Pierquin).  Baboons  and  other  apes 
carry  their  young  on  their  backs  (Houzeau) — an  operation 
that  requires  the  use  of  the  arm  both  of  mother  and  child. 
Diana  monkeys  carry  each  other  on  their  backs  (Cassell). 
The  soko  (Livingstone),  ouistiti  monkey,  and  various  apes 
(Houzeau)  and  monkeys  (Miss  Gordon  Cumming)  carry 
their  young  in  front  of  the  chest,  as  human  mothers  or 
nurses  do,  and  fondle  or  *  dandle '  them  in  the  same  way. 
Miss  Gordon  Cumming  tells  us  of  monkeys  in  India  '  nursing 
their  babies  as  tenderly  as  a  woman  ....  sometimes 
carrying  a  baby  in  each  arm,'  or  the  babies  were  seen  '  sit- 
ting on  their  (mothers')  backs,  with  their  little  arms  round 
the  parental  necks.'  They  sometimes  also  run  on  all  fours, 
*  with  the  baby  slung  below  and  grasping  the  parental  body. 
Sometimes  the  young  one  sits  on  the  shoulder  or  astride  on 


USE   OF  NATURAL  INSTRUMENTS.  411 

the  back.  In  short,  whatever  attitudes  human  beings  could 
devise  seem  to  come  quite  naturally  to  these  absurd  creatures.' 
The  artist  of  the  '  Graphic '  who  accompanied  the  Prince  of 
Wales  in  his  Indian  journey  in  1875-76,  describing  the 
tame  and  sacred  Durga  monkeys  of  the  Temple  of  Benares, 
represents  the  mother  monkeys  as  there  *  running  about 
with  their  babies  clasped  tightly  to  their  breasts ; ' l  and  the 
anthropoid  apes  in  the  same  way  strain  their  infants  to  their 
breasts.  The  chimpanzee  carries  its  young  in  its  arms 
(Houzeau). 

In  the  same  way,  moreover,  in  which  they  carry  about 
and  nurse  or  fondle  their  own  young,  various  of  the  Quad- 
rumana  carry  about  and  nurse  or  fondle  human  infants  as 
well  as  various  animal  pets.  Thus  Berkeley  tells  us  of  a 
monkey  that  carried  a  human  child  companion  in  its  arms, 
though  it  carried  the  poor  child  by  tucking  him  under  its 
arm,  head  downwards,  and  so  taking  him  for  air  to  the  roof. 
The  *  Animal  World'  mentions  a  tame  baboon  carrying  a 
dog  in  the  same  way.  Livingstone  reports  that  the  soko 
carries  in  its  arms  the  children  of  kidnapped  natives. 

We  have  seen  that  certain  of  the  Quadrumana  use  their 
arms  in  the  caressing  or  embracing  of  their  young.  They 
do  so  also  in  embracing  each  other,  whether  the  embrace  be 
an  expression  of  mutual  or  marital  affection  or  the  grip  or 
hug  of  the  wrestler  in  jest  or  earnest.  They  frequently  hug 
or  embrace  their  mates — wives  or  husbands — just  as  human 
beings  do  in  civilised  society.  Thus  the  orang-utan  uses  its 
arms  for  embracing  its  mate  (Cassell).  The  soko  grapples 
with  man  (Livingstone),  and  apes  grip  each  other  in  wrestling, 
just  as  our  Cumberland  or  Westmoreland  men  do.  Baboons 
embrace  their  young  (Houzeau).  Bartlett  speaks  of  the 
mutual  embraces  of  the  chimpanzee ;  Cassell  of  hugging  or 
embracing  each  other  in  the  siamang  and  the  tocque 
monkey ;  and  various  other  monkeys  or  apes  caress  each 
other  by  circling  the  arms  round  the  neck.  A  male  siamang 
also  embraced  its  master  (Cassell). 

The  Quadrumana  use  their  hands  for  many  of  the  same 
purposes  to  which  man  applies  them ;  for  instance — 

1  '  Graphic/  January  5,  1876,  p.  123. 


412  USE  OF  NATUKAL  INSTRUMENTS. 

1.  In  greeting,  by  offering  and  shaking  hands. 

2.  In  expressing  grief  or  distress,  by  the  wringing  to- 
gether of  their  own   hands ;    or  anger,  by    rubbing    them 
together. 

3.  In  giving  blows  or  fisticuffs  with  the  hand  clenched. 

4.  In  using  the  closed  fist  threateningly,  or  in  passion  ; 
or — 

5.  In  waving  or  warning  off — the  hand   being  either 
open  or  shut. 

6.  In  the  use  of  natural  weapons — such  as  sticks,  fruits, 
or  stones — as  missiles  or  otherwise,  or  of  instruments  such 
as  drumsticks. 

7.  In   the   use   of    man's    instruments — such   as    oars, 
pump-handles,  jugs  or  pots,  ropes,  brooms  or  besoms,  pestle 
and  mortar. 

8.  In  shading  their  eyes  from  the  sun. 

9.  In  using  the  hollowed  hand  as  a  drinking  vessel. 

10.  In  warming  their  outspread  hands  before  a  fire. 

11.  In  washing  their  own  faces  or  hands,  or  those  of 
their  young. 

12.  In  making  beds. 

13.  In  receiving  food  or  other  gifts. 

Various  apes  and  monkeys  shake  hands  with  men,  fre- 
quently taking  the  initiative  by  offering  their  hands  first 
(Lady  Verney).  A  young,  and  necessarily  wild,  soko  '  held 
out  her  hand  to  be  shaken  '  (Livingstone).  The  chimpanzee 
presents  its  hanjd  in  greeting  or  thanksgiving  (Houzeau). 
The  lori  exhibits  its  attachment  to  man  by  squeezing  his 
fingers  (Cassell),  and  various  monkeys  or  apes  do  the  same. 

The  closed  or  clenched  fist  is  used  in  boxing  with  each 
other  or  with  man,  in  chastising  each  other,  in  defiance, 
threatening,  or  passion.  The  orang-utan  uses  its  fists  as 
weapons  both  of  offence  and  defence  (Cassell).  Yarious  apes 
punish  each  other  by  fist  blows  (Pierquin).  The  soko  slaps 
the  cheek  of  the  native  whom  it  attacks,  beats  off  intruders 
with  its  fists  and  yells,  and  an  attempted  abduction  of  a  fe- 
male leads  all  his  companions  to  box  and  bite  the  abductor 
(Livingstone).  The  great  chacma  baboon  fisticuffs  its  young 
for  practical  irreverential  jokes,  such  as  pulling  its  tail 


USE   OF  NATURAL  INSTRUMENTS.  413 

(Drayson).  A  young  soko,  'on  being  interfered  with  by  a 
man  ....  tried  to  beat  him  with  her  hands '  (Livingstone). 
A  chimpanzee  in  the  Zoological  Gardens  of  London  boxes 
with  its  keeper — in  sport,  no  doubt.1  Monkeys  in  New 
Guinea  shake  their  fists  in  defiance  (Lawson).  The  orang 
beats  the  ground  with  its  fists  when  in  passion  (Yvan). 

The  collared  callithrix  monkey  rubs  its  hands  in  anger 
(Cassell).  Wringing  the  hands  in  certain  monkeys,  as  in 
man,  is  an  expression  of  anguish.  A  young  soko  '  wrings 
her  hands  quite  naturally,  as  if  in  despair '  (Livingstone). 
The  sacred  Durga  monkeys  of  Benares  '  hold  out  their  hands 
for  food;'2  in  other  words,  adopt  this  means  of  begging.  The 
chimpanzee  uses  its  hand,  as  man  does,  to  wave  or  warn  off 
intruders  (Houzeau).  A  young  soko  '  holds  out  her  hand 
for  people  to  lift  her  up  and  carry  her,  quite  like  a  spoiled 
child*  (Livingstone). 

The  siamang  mother  washes  her  young  (Cassell) ;  while  of 
the  gibbon  Duvancel  asserts  that  he  has  seen  the  *  mothers 
carry  their  young  ones  to  the  water  and  wash  their  faces' 
(Biichner).  The  titi  monkey  washes  its  hands  as  man  does 
(Cassell).  The  chimpanzee  washes  its  own  hands  and  face 
(Houzeau).  A  young  soko  '  wipes  her  face  with  a  leaf ' 
(Livingstone). 

Many  monkeys  and  apes  make  use  of  missiles,  throwing 
stones  or  pieces  of  rock,  fruits  or  sticks,  or  other  accessible 
movables.  Baboons  throw  showers  of  stones  (Cassell).  The 
orang-utan  uses  fruits  and  branches  (Wallace).  The  Rhesus, 
coaita,  and  other  monkeys  throw  stones  in  retaliation  or 
otherwise  (Cassell). 

Some  wield  sticks  as  cudgels  or  clubs,  as  weapons  of 
offence  or  defence — for  instance,  the  gorilla  and  chimpanzee 
(Cassell).  A  cebus  (monkey)  of  Belt's,  in  order  to  catch 
ducks,  held  out  a  piece  of  bread  with  one  hand,  and  when  it 
had  tempted  one  of  the  birds  within  reach,  seized  it  with 
the  other,  itself  swinging  meanwhile  from  a  verandah  by  its 
chain.  An  ouapavi  (monkey)  brushed  its  own  clothes  and 
shoes  (Cassell).  The  monkeys  of  Darfur  (Africa)  cling  to 

1  « Graphic,'  August  28,  1875,  p.  199. 

2  Ibid.,  January  5,  1876,  p.  123. 


414  USE   OF  NATURAL  INSTRUMENTS. 

each,  other,  hand  in  hand,  when  purposely  intoxicated,  in 
order  to  their  capture,  by  man.  Baboons  cuff  or  skelp  their 
young  (Cassell). 

In  many  of  the  operations  involving  the  use  of  the  arms 
and  hands  the  employment  of  the  fingers  and  thumbs  is  also 
implied.  But  there  are  many  operations  in  which,  among 
the  Quadrumana,  the  nicely  adjusted  use  of  the  fingers  and 
thumbs,  and  even  the  nails,  is  as  much  required  as  in  many 
of  the  works  of  man.  These  operations  include — 

1.  The  picking  out  of  vermin — such  as  pediculi — from 
the  hair  and  skin  of  various  parts  of  the  body. 

2.  The  picking  up  of  pins  or  other  very  small  articles. 

.  3.  The  undoing,  untying,  or  uncoiling  of  knots  in  cord, 
string,  rope,  rings  or  links  in  chains ;  including  also  the 
picking  out  of  thread  in  sewn  articles,  as  well  as  the  tying 
of  knots. 

4.  The  use  of  keys  or  other  instruments  of  man's — such 
as  table  utensils. 

5.  The  picking  of  pockets  and  other  forms  of  theft. 

6.  The  prizing  open  of  lids  of  boxes  of  all  kinds. 

7.  Turning  over  the  pages  of  books. 

8.  Doing  or  undoing  the  fastenings  of  articles  of  man's 
dress — such  as  boots. 

9.  Hairdressing. 

10.  Extracting  nails,  staples,  or  holdfasts. 

As  pickpockets,  many  monkeys  may  well  be  termed  *  light- 
fingered,'  and  in  other  ways  they  prove  themselves  adroit 
thieves,  mainly  by  the  use  of  their  fingers.  The  titi  monkey 
theftuously  removes  cabinet  specimens  of  insects  from  the 
pins  by  which  they  are  fastened  (Cassell).  The  mona  monkey 
opens  locks,  unties  knots,  and  undoes  rings  (Cassell).  The 
orang-utan  also  unties  knots  in  a  chain  (Cassell).  A  pet 
whitefaced  (cebus)  monkey  of  Belt's  opened  the  links  of  its 
chain  and  so  escaped  several  times.  'It  could  loosen  any 
knot  in  a  few  minutes,'  whether  of  cord  or  raw-hide 
thong.  A  young  female  soko  untied  a  cord  that  bound  her, 
'with  fingers  and  thumbs  in  quite  a  systematic  way,'  ac- 
cording to  Livingstone,  who  also  describes  an  older  male  as 
sitting  picking  his  nails.  A  tame  capuchin  monkey  released 


USE  OF  NATURAL  INSTRUMENTS.  415 

itself  from  the  irksome  bondage  of  straps  '  by  picking  out 
the  threads  by  which  the  straps  were  sewn  to  the  buckles, 
and  so  rendering  the  fastenings  useless'  (Wood).  Mother 
monkeys  in  Abyssinia  dress  the  hair  of  their  young  (Mans- 
field Parkyns).  The  macaco  monkey  shows  great  dexterity 
in  opening  boxes  (Buffon).  The  marmozet  uses  its  fingers 
in  turning  over  the  pages  of  a  book,  which  it  pretends  to 
read.  The  collared  callithrix,  disliking  tobacco  smoke, 
snatches  its  master's  cigar  from  his  mouth  (Cassell).  A 
female  gorilla  in  the  Dresden  Zoological  Gardens  takes  off 
and  replaces,  for  the  amusement  of  visitors,  the  boots  of  her 
keeper  ('  Nature  ').  A  capuchin  monkey  took  the  hinges  off 
the  door  of  its  cage  in  order  to  escape.  'No  matter  how 
firmly  they  were  fixed,  he  was  sure  before  long  to  extract  the 
staples,  pull  out  the  nails,  and  so  open  the  door '  (Wood). 
The  Durga  monkeys  of  Benares  occasionally  *  snatch  some 
particularly  noticeable  turban  off  the  wearer's  head,'  among 
visitors  to  the  monkey  temple  of  that  city,  and  now  and 
then  they  '  pelt  passers-by  with  remarkably  good  aim.' l 

Mandrills  that  live  on  scorpions  use  their  fingers  and 
hands  to  lift  the  stones  under  which  their  prey  conceal 
themselves  (Smith). 

While  giving  such  instances  of  what  may  be  called 
'  handiness  J  among  the  Quadrumana,  it  is  desirable  to  con- 
trast them  with  a  parallel  series  of  illustrations  of  what  may 
equally  appropriately  be  denominated  the  '  handlessness  '  of 
man.  Inability  to  use  his  hands  deftly,  or  otherwise  than 
awkwardly,  is  not  only  characteristic  of  many  individuals  in 
the  most  highly  civilised  communities,  but  of  whole  races 
of  man — savage  or  semi-savage.  Thus  Monteiro  tells  us, 
speaking  of  the  negroes  of  western  tropical  Africa,  that 
'  some  of  the  actions  of  the  blacks  are  exactly  the  same  as 
those  performed  by  monkeys.  In  using  their  hands  or 
fingers  to  clean  or  polish  a  piece  of  brass-work,  for  instance, 
the  feeble  and  nerveless  manner  of  holding  the  bit  of  oiled 
rag,  and  the  whole  action  of  the  hand  and  arm  is  strikingly 
like  that  of  a  monkey  when  it  rubs  its  hands  on  the  ground 
when  they  are  sticky  or  dirty.  Their  manner  of  sliding  their 

1  'Graphic,'  January  5,  1876,  p.  123. 
28 


416  USE  OF  NATUEAL  INSTKUMENTS. 

hands  up  and  down  on  the  edge  of  a  door,  or  on  a  door-post, 
or  along  the  edges  of  a  table  whilst  waiting  or  speaking,  is 
very  monkeylike.  And  no  black  man,  woman,  or  child  ever 
goes  along  a  corridor  or  narrow  passage  without  rubbing 
both  hands  on  the  walls.' 

Certain  other  animals  use  their  fore  paws  or  fore  legs 
for  many  of  the  same  purposes  and  in  many  of  the  same 
ways  for  and  in  which  the  Quadrumana  and  man  apply  their 
hands  and  arms.  Thus  a  certain  Eskimo  dog  speedily  imitated 
civilised  man's  custom  of  shaking  hands  by  offering  its  paw 
(McGahan);  and  this  shaking  hands  with  man  by  holding 
up  its  paw  is  one  of  the  commonest  tricks  of  his  dog  pets. 
'  Nature '  mentions  a  mastiff  that,  as  a  caress  or  mark  of 
affection,  put  his  paws  round  a  favourite  companion  cat,  and 
on  her  death  in  the  same  way  round  her  only  surviving 
kitten,  both  cat  and  kitten  previously  sleeping  habitually  in 
his  kennel,  with  his  fore  legs  thus  guarding  them. 

A  large  dog  that  had  saved  a  small  one  from  drowning 
'  cuffed  it  first  with  one  paw  and  then  with  the .  other ' 
(Wood).  A  female  St.  Bernard  dog  offered  its  paw  to  man 
in  token  of  its  sympathy  with  human  distress — a  sort  of 
hand  offering  or  shaking  not  at  all  uncommon  both  in  cat 
and  dog.  The  same  affectionate  St.  Bernard  embraced  — 
*  clasped ' — a  mistress  in  its  forelegs — the  equivalents  in  it 
of  arms— and  died  with  its  paws  resting  on  or  in  the  hand  of 
a  much-loved  master  (Wood).  Monteiro  '  saw  a  dog  eating 
the  grains  off  a  green  Indian-corn  cob,  which  he  was  holding 
down  with  his  two  front  paws.' 

The  cat  not  unfrequently  uses  its  paw  to  touch  or  tap  its 
master's  shoulder  when  it  desires  to  attract  his  notice 
('  Animal  World  ').  A  pet  cat  sitting  at  a  carriage  window, 
whenever  anything  passing  takes  her  fancy,  '  puts  her  paw 
on  my  chest,'  says  her  mistress,  *  and  makes  a  pretty  little 
noise,  as  though  asking  me  if  I  had  seen  it  also.'  Another 
laid  her  paw  on  the  lips  of  a  lady  who  had  a  distressing 
cough  every  time  she  coughed,  in  evidence  possibly  of  pity, 
possibly  in  order  to  the  physical  suppression  of  the  cough  by 
closure  of  the  aperture  by  which  alone  it  could  find  vent 
(Wood).  A  third  cat  touched  with  her  paw  the  lips  of  those 


USE   OF  NATUKAL  INSTRUMENTS.  417 

who  whistled  a  tune,  'as  if  pleased  with  the  sound'  (Wood). 
Cats  'cuff'  each  other  or  their  young — that  is,  they  give 
blows,  and  so  punish  or  administer  rebuke  to  some  unruly 
or  troublesome  kitten — with  their  paws.  They  also  warm 
their  paws  before  a  fire,  and  use  them  for  shading  the  face 
either  from  the  fire  or  the  sun  ('  Animal  World').  We  are 
told  of  a  cat  frequently  patting  the  nose  of  a  companion 
horse.  It  is  well  known  that  our  domestic  cats  are  in  the 
habit  of  washing  their  faces  by  means  of  their  paws,  by 
which  means  also  they  brush  and  clean  their  foreheads  and 
eyes.  The  cat  uses  its  fore  paw  too  in  touching  or  testing 
objects — to  ascertain,  for  instance,  their  hardness  or  other 
qualities  ('  Percy  Anecdotes  '),  or  to  measure  the  quantity  or 
discover  the  level  of  the  fluids  certain  vessels  may  contain. 
Thus  a  cat,  '  when  wishing  to  drink  water  from  a  jug,'  used 
its  paw  '  to  ascertain  if  it  was  full  enough '  ('  Animal  World '). 
It  takes  milk  from  a  narrow  milk-pot  by  inserting  its  paw, 
curling  it  up  for  removal  when  saturated  with  milk,  and  then 
licking  it  (Wood).  In  a  Birmingham  burglary  case,  heard 
at  the  Warwick  Assizes  in  March  1877,  'the  prosecutor  de- 
posed that  he  was  awoke  by  his  cat  patting  his  face,  Puss 
having  discovered  the  burglars  rummaging  his  bedroom.' ! 

The  bear  uses  its  fore  legs  and  paws  for  the  purposes  of 
embrace,  either  that  of  affection  in  the  case  of  a  mother  and 
her  cubs,  or  of  mutual  recognition  (Buffon),  or  in  the  hug  of 
struggle  with  an  enemy,  such  as  man,  or  some  other  ob- 
noxious, and  it  may  be  inanimate,  object.  Gillmore  mentions 
a  North  American  black  bear  that  picked  up  a  frightened  and 
fugitive  sheep  between  his  paws,  placed  it  on  the  top  of  the 
rails  of  a  fence,  and  pushed  it  over,  so  as  to  assist  its  flight — 
a  procedure  which  the  observer  himself  describes  as  '  almost 
incredible.' 

Drummond  mentions  a  lioness  as  giving  her  unruly  cubs 
a  smart  blow  with  her  paw  as  a  quietus.  Kangaroos  use 
their  fore  legs  and  paws  to  hug  the  dog  in  fight  (Baden 
Powell).  The  tame  hare  uses  its  fore  paws  in  patting  or 
clapping  ('  Percy  Anecdotes ').  And  we  are  told  of  wild 
hares  'patting  each  other  in  the  face  with  their  paws,  as 
1  <  Inverness  Courier,'  March  29,  1877. 


418  USE  OF  NATURAL  INSTRUMENTS. 

though  indulging  in  a  family  sparring  match '  (Wood).  The 
black  and  brown  rat  and  the  common  or  domestic  mouse 
lick  their  paws,  and  so  wash  their  heads  and  faces  as  the  cat 
does  (Wood).  The  hamster  and  common  rat  wash  their 
faces.  Mice  also  embrace  each  other  with  their  fore  legs 
and  paws  (Cassell).  Rats  eat  like  squirrels,  '  sitting  upon 
their  hind  legs,  and  holding  the  fruit  in  their  front  paws ' 
(Wood).  The  toad  uses  one  of  its  fore  feet  to  draw  any 
extraneous  matter — such  as  a  blade  of  grass  or  a  fragment 
of  moss — out  of  its  mouth  (Jesse).  The  Mellivora,  and  pro- 
bably other  animals,  use  their  paws  to  aid  vision,  by  acting 
as  eye-shades,  just  as  man  does  (Houzeau). 

The  dog,  cat,  and  other  animals,  moreover,  use  their  fore 
legs  and  paws  for  purposes  to  which  the  Quadrumana  and 
man  do  not  usually  at  least  apply  their  hands  and  arms. 
Thus  the  cat  steals,  by  the  insertion  of  its  paw,  bottled  porter, 
milk  or  cream,  or  helps  herself  to  water  or  other  fluids,  from 
vessels  with  long  narrow  mouths,  inaccessible  to  its  tongue. 
A  certain  cat,  when  thirsty  and  unable  to  reach  the  water  in 
a  jug  by  means  of  her  tongue,  dipped  her  paws  in  (Wood). 

What  may  be  considered  in  certain  respects  the  equiva- 
lents of  fingers,  hands,  and  arms  in  man,  or  of  paws  and  fore 
legs  in  other  animals,  subserve  various  useful,  and  some 
singular,  purposes.  Thus  there  is  a  certain  land-crab  of 
Samoa  that  climbs  cocoa-nut  trees,  '  and  pushes  down  a 
brown  nut  that  is  nearly  ripe,  and  consequently  easily 
detached  from  the  stalk.  It  then  descends,  goes  to  the  nut, 
and  with  its  strong  claws  tears  off  the  fibrous  husk,  always 
commencing  at  that  end  where  the  three  eyeholes  are 
situated,  just  as  a  native  would.  When  this  operation  is 
completed  it  reascends  the  tree  ....  and  holding  the  nut 
by  a  bit  of  the  fibre,  which  it  leaves  on  for  the  purpose,  it 
lets  it  fall  upon  a  rock  or  stone,  and  thus  breaks  it.  When 
there  are  no  other  means  of  breaking  the  nut  it  hammers 
away  with  its  heavy  claws  on  one  of  the  eyeholes  until  an 
opening  is  made,  large  enough  to  insert  its  narrow  pincers, 
Avith  which  it  scoops  out  the  white  food'  (Boddam  Whetham). 

Hague  speaks  of  certain  Californian  ants  wringing  their 
pincers  in  despair,  as  man  would  do  his  hands.  Soldiers 


USE   OF  NATUKAL  INSTRUMENTS.  419 

among  white  ants  signal  to  the  workers  by  strokes  of  their 
pincers  (Figuier).  And  ants  in  general  use  their  antenna 
in — 

1.  Examination  of  objects. 

2.  Communication  of  ideas,  feelings,  or  desires  (Figuier). 
They  are  instruments  of  language. 

3.  Milking  Aphides,  in  which  the  deftness  or  adroitness 
of  the  ant,  and  also  of  the  bee,  has  been  commented  on  by 
Moggridge. 

The  dugong  of  Ceylon  clasps  its  young  to  its  breast  with 
one  flipper  while  swimming  with  the  other  (Tennent).  <I 
once  saw  a  whale,'  says  Dr.  Robert  Brown,  *  when  the  boats 
were  approaching  it,  take  the  young  under  one  pectoral  fin 
and  swim  off  by  the  aid  of  the  other.' 

Claws  are  used  by  some  animals  for  certain  of  the  pur- 
poses to  which  man  and  the  Quadrumana  apply  their  nails. 
In  this  way  pea-hens  are  in  the  habit  of  combing  out  the 
topknots  of  their  sons.  Romanes  gives  a  case  in  which  a 
Brahma  hen  (foster  mother)  did  the  same  to  her  foster  son 
(a  peacock) — '  she  standing  on  a  seat  or  other  eminence  of 
suitable  height,  and  he  bending  his  head  forwards  with 
evident  satisfaction.'  Parrots  and  many  other  birds  hold 
their  food  in  their  feet  or  claws — for  instance,  certain  New 
Zealand  birds  mentioned  by  Dr.  Buller.  By  means  of  their 
claws,  too,  they  hold  on  to  their  perch,  and  scratch  up  earth 
in  search  of  worms  or  otherwise.  A  pet  bird  of  Bechstein's 
got  its  food  by  pressing  a  lever  with  its  foot.  The  procedure 
was  imitated  by  another — uneducated — bird  suffering  from 
hunger.  It  lifted  the  lid  of  the  food  box  with  its  claws  as  it 
had  seen  the  trained  bird  do.  Dogs  and  cats  use  their  claws 
to  scratch  up  earth  in  making  caches  of  food,  to  scratch  at 
doors  so  as  to  attract  man's  notice,  to  reach  or  grasp  coveted 
articles. 

The  feet — especially  the  hind  feet  -are  used  for  many 
purposes,  both  as  implements  and  weapons.  The  horse 
inflicts  deadly  injury  with  its  hind  hoofs,  batters  doors  or 
fences,  assaults  its  enemies,  or  protects  itself  from  their 
assaults.  But  it  also  makes  a  more  ingenious  and  less  ob- 
jectionable use  of  these  formidable  hoofs.  Thus  a  mare 


420  USE   OF  NATURAL  INSTRUMENTS. 

locked  up  in  a  coach-house  repeatedly  extricated  herself  by 
drawing  up  the  drop-bolt  with  her  hind  hoof  ('Animal 
World  ').  Sheep  attacked  by  the  breeze  fly  stamp  by  striking 
their  feet  on  the  ground,  as  an  expression  of  their  excite- 
ment (Figuier).  The  tumble-dung  beetle  of  North  America 
rolls  its  pellets  of  dung  by  pushing  with  its  hind  feet.  A 
certain  trap- door  spider  of  New  Zealand  holds  down  the 
hinged  door  of  its  subterranean  nest  by  means  of  its  feet,  so 
as  to  prevent  its  being  opened  by  an  intruder  or  an  enemy 
(Gillies). 

Various  animals  apply  their  tails  to  a  number  of  useful 
purposes.  The  cat,  ant-eater,  squirrel,  jerboa,  guinea-pig, 
wolf,  jackal,  marinozet,  and  other  animals  use  their  tails 
partly  as  respirators  or  comforters  (Lawson  Tait),  as  retainers 
of  heat,  just  as  women  wear  boas. 

The  yak  uses  its  tail  as  a  fly-flapper,  whisk,  or  fan,  and 
the  horse  and  many  other  animals  in  a  similar  way  employ 
their  tails  to  protect  themselves  to  a  certain  extent  from 
insect  pests.  Eats  use  their  tails,  as  cats  do  their  paws,  in 
extracting  or  abstracting  jelly,  oil,  or  cream  from  preserve 
bottles  or  other  vessels  with  necks  too  narrow  to  admit  of 
the  passage  of  their  whole  body,  as  has  been  recently  proved 
by  the  experiments  of  Romanes,  and  was  long  ago  pointed 
out  by  Jesse.  An  instance  is  given  by  Baird  of  a  rat  re- 
paying the  attention  or  affection  bestowed  upon  it  by  a  child 
companion  by  the  useful  service  of  whisking  flies  from  Tiis 
face  by  means  of  its  tail.  Miss  Gordon  Gumming  describes 
an  old  monkey  in  India  giving  a  young  one  a  swing  on  its 
tail,  just  as  man  uses  his  foot  with  his  infant.  The  macaco 
and  other  monkeys  play  with  their  own  tails  as  well  as  with 
those  of  their  fellows  (Cassell),  and  there  are  probably  few 
persons  who  have  not  seen  kittens  amusing  themselves  in  a 
similar  cheap  and  simple  way.  The  marmozet  (monkey)  uses 
its  own  tail  as  a  covering  for  its  body  during  sleep  (Cassell) 
in  lieu  of  other  forms  of  bed-clothes.  The  aides  monkey  uses 
its  tail  in  fishing  (Houzeau),  and  the  racoon  does  the  same 
in  fishing  for  crabs  ('Percy  Anecdotes').  The  rat  uses  its 
tail  in  the  guidance  of  the  blind.  Apes  employ  theirs  in 
suspension  and  progression  (Houzeau).  The  great  ant-eater 


USE   OF  NATURAL  INSTRUMENTS.  421 

employs  its  tail  as  an  umbrella  against  rain — a  circumstance 
taken  advantage  of  by  the  Indians,  who  rustle  the  forest 
leaves  in  imitation  of  a  shower,  'and  whilst  he  is  putting 
up  his  umbrella  kill  him'  (Wallace). 

The  beaks  or  bills  of  birds  are  used  in  a  great  variety  of 
ways.  The  tailor  bird  employs  its  bill  as  a  needle,  its  thread 
being  the  fibre  of  a  tree  bark,  by  means  of  which  needle  and 
thread  it  sews  a  series  of  leaves  in  an  intricate  fashion,  so  as 
to  form  a  waterproof  cover  for  its  nest  (Baker).  Hens  comb 
out  the  feathers  of  their  chickens  in  this  way,  and  Romanes 
gives  the  case  of  a  foster  hen  doing  the  same  to  the  hair  of  a 
brood  of  young  ferrets  consigned  to  her  care.  Various  birds 
carry  their  young  in  their  beaks,  as  in  the  case  of  a  landrail 
mentioned  in  the  '  Animal  World.'  A  common  wood  pigeon 
— a  ring  dove — tapped  at  a  certain  window  till  it  was  opened 
(Jesse),  and  a  swan  tapped  at  a  door  '  at  a  certain  hour  every 
afternoon '  to  intimate  that  it  had  come  for  its  food  supply 
(Carpenter).  Eobins  and  other  birds  frequently  thus  tap  at 
windows  or  doors  for  admission,  or  to  attract  notice.  The 
woodpecker  taps  the  bark  of  trees  for  other  purposes,  as  well 
as  excavates,  with  its  beak.  The  hen  chases  away  stranger 
chickens  by  blows  of  her  beak.  The  parrot,  too,  gives  blows 
with  its  beak,  and  this  organ  is  commonly  used  as  a  weapon 
of  offence  or  defence  in  combats  between  various  bird  indivi^ 
duals  or  species.  A  goldfinch  tied  with  a  string  a  weak 
branch  to  a  stronger  one  in  her  nest-building  (Watson).  A 
performing  cockatoo  beat  time  with  a  drumstick  held  in  its 
bill  (Buckland).  Beaks  are  commonly  used  among  birds  as 
instruments  for  picking  or  breaking  up  food,  fruits,  and 
grains.  Crows  steal  cocoa-nut  oil  from  railway  carriage 
boxes  by  prizing  open  the  spring  lid  with  their  beaks  (Wood). 
A  raven,  magpie,  or  jackdaw  by  the  same  means  turns  over 
and  over  for  examination  as  deftly  as  it  could  with  a  hand 
any  object  that  excites  its  curiosity.  A  raven  untied  knots 
in  string  and  undermined  the  bars  of  its  cage,  while  it  also 
tested  the  strength  or  weakness  of  wire — all  in  order  to- 
escape  from  its  cage  (Wood). 

Many  birds  feed  their  young  or  each  other  by  passing 
food  from  beak  to  beak.  By  means  of  their  beaks  they 


422  USE  OF  NATUEAL  INSTRUMENTS. 

clean  their  nests  of  excrement,  free  themselves  from  vermin, 
preen  their  feathers,  hoist  themselves  up  wires  or  spars. 
The  chick  in  ovo  uses  its  bill  to  break  its  shell  and  emanci- 
pate itself. 

The  wings  are  used  variously — as  fans,  as  by  the  hive  bee 
in  ventilation  of  the  hive,  or  in  cooling  itself  (Watson) ;  or 
as  shade  or  shelter,  protecting  the  young  from  danger,  or 
from  the  sun  in  birds  (White),  and  as  weapons  of  offence  or 
defence  in  fighting  with  each  other.  A  swan  in  Kew  Gar- 
dens knocked  down  a  child  by  a  blow  with  its  wing,  in 
order  that  it  might  rob  him  of  some  confectionery  ('Cham- 
bers's  Journal'). 

Besides  being  used  in  biting  or  tearing,  in  defence 
or  revenge,  in  food  capture  and  breaking-up,  the  teeth 
of  various  animals  are  sometimes  employed  for  other  pur- 
poses. Horses  use  them  occasionally  in  turning  water 
taps,  working  pump  handles,  opening  gates  or  corn  chests. 
Dogs  pull  each  other's  ears  in  play  or  for  specific  ends,  as 
they  do  also  woman's  dress  when  they  desire  to  attract  her 
attention. 

By  means  of  its  teeth  the  dog  sometimes  tears  off  clothes 
on  fire  from  a  child  playfellow  or  a  mistress,  and  it  employs 
the  same  instrument  in  lifting  door  latches,  as  the  horse, 
ass,  and  cat  more  frequently  do  ('Animal  World').  A  dog 
that  had  soiled  a  floor  with  its  mud-covered  feet  scraped  off 
the  mud  with  its  teeth  (Houzeau).  The  horse  uses  its  teeth 
in  lifting  the  crawling  infant  from  its  path,  for  freeing  itself 
or  its  fellow  from  vermin,  or  to  relieve  it  from  cutaneous 
irritation,  however  arising,  to  demolish  its  crib  in  the  excite- 
ment of  passion  or  disease,  even  for  a  certain  kind  of  mutual 
caress.  The  tusks  of  the  elephant  are  employed  for  uprooting 
trees,  and  with  terrible  effect  in  the  destruction  of  the  frail 
dwellings  of  the  Indian  peasantry. 

Certain  curious  uses  are  occasionally  made  of  the  mouth. 
The  monkey  employs  it  for  hiding  food  or  stolen  articles,  and 
the  dog  sometimes  does  the  same.  Berkeley  mentions  a  lame 
monkey  using  its  cheek  to  carry  nuts.  The  dog  uses  its 
mouth  in  holding  and  carrying  as  well  as  concealing.  Thus 
it  preserves  lost  coin  for  its  master.  Martin  mentions  a 


USE   OF  NATUEAL  INSTRUMENTS.  423 

poodle  keeping  a  gold  coin  in  its  mouth  for  its  master,  and 
Tytler  gives  instances  of  a  dog  carrying  money  as  well  as 
food  in  its  mouth  when  engaged  in  going  messages  for  its 
master.  It  is  in  their  mouths,  too,  that  so  many  roll-pur- 
chasing dogs  convey  their  coppers  to  the  baker's.  In  one 
instance,  related  to  me  by  Dr.  John  Brown,  a  big  dog  offered 
its  open  mouth  as  an  asylum  for  a  frightened  bird,  a  live 
canary,  in  danger  of  its  life  from  a  cat  or  other  natural 
enemy.  In  such  cases  the  mouth  and  cavity  of  the  cheeks 
form  a  natural  pouch.  But  there  are  certain  other  pouches 
connected  with  cheeks,  mouth,  chin,  throat,  neck,  thighs, 
abdomen,  or  other  parts  of  the  body  that  are  used  in  similar 
ways  for  the  storage  of  food  or  the  stowage  of  young — such 
as  those  of  the  so-called  '  pouch  rat/  pelican,  and  kangaroo. 
And  here,  as  in  so  many  other  cases,  there  is  a  close  analogy 
with  the  habits  of  certain  savages  (Houzeau).  The  dog 
sometimes  has  been  known  to  recover  a  boat  gone  adrift, 
towing  it  by  a  chain  held  or  grasped  in  or  by  its  mouth 
(Tytler). 

Norwegian  ponies,  as  I  have  myself  observed  when  tra- 
velling by  carriole  in  Norway,  push  open  the  gates  that  bar 
the  roads,  a  procedure  that  saves  the  skydskarls — the  boys 
who  sit  behind — the  trouble  of  getting  down  constantly  to 
open  these  gates,  to  do  which,  however,  is  part  of  the  duty 
of  the  said  post-boys.  These  ponies  use  their  chests  as  a 
pushing  agent,  and  they  produce  the  necessary  impetus  by 
making  a  sort  of  leap  and  so  dashing  fearlessly  against  the 
gates. 

The  head  is  used  sometimes  as  man  employs  it — as  when 
the  domesticated  chimpanzee  carries  water-pitchers  on  its 
head  (Houzeau).  More  frequently  it  is  used  for  butting, 
though  this  butting  is  not  only,  always,  or  necessarily  em- 
ployed in  the  fight ;  for  the  elephant,  for  instance,  butts  his 
forehead  suddenly  and  with  great  force  against  the  trunk  of 
the  heglik  tree  (Balanites  Egyptiaca),  merely  to  cause  its 
coveted  fruit  to  fall  (Baker). 

Horns  are  applied  to  various  purposes  besides  their  fre- 
quent use  as  dangerous  weapons  in  fighting — as  among 
stags — or  as  means  of  inflicting  injury  on  an  adversary  in 


424  USE  OF  NATURAL  INSTRUMENTS. 

the  case  of  the  bull  or  wild  boar.  The  domestic  ox  breaks 
fences  with  its  horns.  A  bull  lifted  a  gate  off  its  hinges  by 
means  of  its  horns,  employed  as  a  hoist  or  lever  ('  Animal 
World').  The  horns  of  the  cow  and  ram  are  used  some- 
times in  the  extrication  of  lambs  or  ewes  from  positions  of 
peril — in  one  case  by  applying  them  in  tearing  aside  briars, 
in  another  by  employing  them  as  a  lever  (Macaulay). 

The  effective  use  of  a  bodily  organ  in  many  different 
ways  as  an  instrument,  implement,  tool,  or  weapon  is  illus- 
trated by  the  applications  to  practical  purposes  made  by  the 
elephant  of  its  proboscis  (or  trunk).  It  can  perform  the  most 
delicate  operations,  such  as  picking  up  a  pin,  and  the 
coarsest,  such  as  grasping  and  lifting  a  log  of  teak  or  throw- 
ing down  some  forest  tree.  By  means  of  it  the  animal  can 
gently  grasp  the  child  that  strays  before  it  on  the  high-road, 
or  can  seize  it  by  the  clothes  and  place  it  carefully  out  of 
danger,  or  it  can  squeeze  its  enemy — man — to  death.  It 
employs  it  in  making  a  salaam,  in  presenting  a  gift,  in 
clearing  the  way  of  movable  obstacles,  in  breaking  off  tree 
branches  for  use  as  whisks,  in  plucking  fruit,  in  stripping 
bamboos  of  their  foliage,  in  ringing  shop  bells  (Buckland), 
in  holding  and  in  blowing  wind  instruments — as  I  have 
myself  seen — in  playing  the  organ,  in  using  planks  thrown 
to  it  by  man  to  help  it  to  extricate  itself  from  a  quicksand 
(Wood),  even  in  embracing  its  fellows.  Of  a  military  ele- 
phant that  had  been  separated  two  years  from  its  regiment 
we  are  told  that,  on  the  return  of  the  regiment,  '  it  was 
quite  affecting  to  see  with  what  kindly  recognition  he  em- 
braced any  of  his  (human)  companions,  placing  his  trunk 
tenderly  on  their  neck  and  shoulders  ('Chambers's  Journal'). 

Very  commonly  animals  use  their  natural  tools  or  weapons 
conjointly,  the  one  to  assist  the  other.  Thus  the  horse  in  the 
fight  uses  both  its  teeth  and  hoofs.  The  elephant,  in  destroy- 
ing its  cage  or  the  peasant's  hut,  employs  both  proboscis  and 
tusks.  In  killing  man  it  may  further  use  its  ponderous  feet, 
or  bring  the  whole  weight  of  its  huge  body  to  bear  in  crush- 
ing him  to  death.  Claws  and  teeth  are  used  conjointly  by 
many  or  all  of  the  Carnivora  in  destroying  and  devouring 
their  prey.  The  black  bear  of  North  America  uses  both 


USE  OF  NATURAL  INSTRUMENTS.  425 

paws  and  teeth  in  breaking  nut-laden  branches  from  trees 
(Houzeau). 

Unaided,  however,  by  other  means  many  animals  could 
not  accomplish  the  objects  they  have  in  view — their  own 
protection,  maintenance,  or  comfort — did  they  not,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  various  parts  or  organs  of  their  own  bodies, 
make  use  of  various  extrinsic  objects — mostly  movables,  to 
which  they  have  so  easy  access.  For  various  purposes  they 
make  appropriate  Tise  of — 

1.  Stones,  pieces  of  rock,  or  other  hard  substances,  fixed 
or  movable — for  instance,  as  missiles,  or  as  anvils  or  wedges. 

2.  Pieces  of  stick  or  wood,  broken  from  trees  or  found  on 
the  ground   in  forests,  and  used  as   clubs   or   cudgels,  as 
levers,  or  as  means  of  reaching  objects  out  of  range. 

3.  Nuts  or  other  fruits  of  various  kinds  as  missiles. 

4.  Leaves  of  different  kinds,  or  leafy  branches  as  whisks, 
flappers,  fans,  sunshades,  punkahs,  brushes  or  switches ;  or 
in  the  construction  of  various  forms  of  shelter. 

Stones  or  movable  bits  of  rock  are  frequently  used,  in 
the  first  place,  as  missiles  or  projectiles,  and  this  sometimes 
by  most  unlikely  animals.  Thus  the  Rev.  Dr.  van  Lennep, 
the  well-known  American  missionary  in  Palestine,  tells 
us  of  a  bear  of  the  Anti-Taurus  that,  being  attacked  by 
shepherds  and  their  dogs,  '  retired,  flinging  stones  at  his 
pursuers  with  such  an  accurate  aim  and  force  that  severe 
wounds  were  inflicted  on  them.' 

The  Polar  bear,  again,  rolls  down  with  corresponding 
effect  huge  pieces  of  rock  from  the  summits  of  cliffs  on  the 
walrus  reclining  unsuspectingly  at  their  base  (Watson  and 
Hall).  Various  monkeys  and  apes  use  stones  as  projectiles 
in  the  same  way  that  boys  employ  them  if  they  happen  to  be 
more  accessible  than  the  fruits  with  which  from  their  high 
tree  fastnesses  they  so  frequently  pelt  forest  travellers  in 
tropical  countries.  Barbary  apes  pelt  man  or  each  other 
with  fruits  (Cassell).  Lawson  describes  himself  as  pelted 
with  wallah  nuts  and  excrement  by  monkeys  in  New  Guinea. 
Portions  of  the  branches  of  trees  are  also  frequently  used  by 
monkeys  to  pelt  enemies  or  intruders.  The  orang  when 
pursued  throws  or  flings  branches,  sticks,  and  heavy  fruits 


426  USE   OF  NATURAL  INSTRUMENTS. 

from  trees  at  its  pursuers  (Biichner,  Pierquin),  or  it  makes 
use  of  everything  that  is  movable  and  manageable. 

Just  as  various  animals — especially  the  quadrumana— 
may  be  said  to  arm  themselves  with  stones,  they  arm  themselves 
even  in  a  more  human  fashion  with  sticks.  They  not  only 
•wield  them  as  staves,  clubs,  or  cudgels,  but  first  fashion 
them  of  suitable  size,  form,  and  weight  by  stripping  their 
foliage  or  otherwise.  The  stick,  indeed,  is  the  primary 
weapon  alike  of  man  and  the  quadrumana.  The  gorilla  uses 
a  stick  as  a  club  both  in  attack  and  defence.  By  this  means 
it  gives  blows  to  the  proboscis  of  the  elephant  (Owen).  The 
orang  brandishes  a  stick  as  a  weapon  (Pierquin).  The 
chimpanzee  arms  itself  with  a  club  (Cassell).  Baboons  and 
other  apes  defend  themselves  with  sticks  as  cudgels  (Buchiier; 
Cassell).  The  sacred  ape  of  India  carries  and  '  stacks  arms' 
— in  the  form  of  sticks — in  a  particular  place  (Houzeau). 

Sticks,  however,  are  used  for  many  other  purposes.  The 
elephant  in  Burmah  makes  a  bamboo  rod  by  stripping  a 
bamboo  stem  of  its  leaves,  and  wields  it  in  its  proboscis  so  as 
to  knock  down  baskets  of  paddy  placed  by  the  Karens  thirty 
feet  high  on  trees — man's  object  being  that  these  food  stores 
should  be  beyond  the  reach  or  range  of  the  animal's  unaided 
trunk.1  The  gorilla  uses  a  stick  as  a  staff  to  support  itself 
in  walking  (Owen).  Certain  monkeys  or  apes  use  sticks  as 
levers  (Darwin).  The  rat  leads  its  blind  parent  or  compa- 
nion by  means  of  a  piece  of  stick  held  between  its  teeth 
(Watson).  The  chimpanzee  fashions  and  uses  its  own 
drumsticks  and  drum  (Houzeau). 

Just  as  the  stick  is  the  primary  weapon  of  savage  man 
and  the  anthropoid  ape,  a  stone  is  the  first  instrument  of 
industry  used  by  man — in  the  bruising  or  crushing  of  nuts 
or  grain.  For  similar  purposes,  and  in  similar  ways,  stones 
are  used  by  a  variety  of  other  animals.  In  some  cases  the 
stone  is  taken  in  the  paw  and  employed  to  break  hard  nuts 
against  some  other  hard  substance.  Thus  apes  take  stones 
in  their  hands  to  break  nuts  against  walls  or  nails  (Darwin). 
The  sacred  monkey  in  this  way  also  uses  stones  for  pounding 
serpent-fangs.  The  howling  monkey  uses  stones  to  smash 

1  '  Graphic,'  August  19,  1876,  p.  175. 


USE  OF  NATURAL  INSTRUMENTS.  427 

oyster-shells  (Dampier).  In  the  commoner  case  of  birds, 
shell-fish  are  either  dropped  from  a  height  on  stones  or  rocks 
or,  held  in  their  beaks  or  bills,  they  are  dashed  violently 
against  stones. 

Various  thrushes,  especially,  are  in  the  habit  of  smashing 
snail-shells  on  or  against  stones.  In  our  own  country  it  is 
a  habit  of  the  common  thrush  to  do  so  by  grasping  the 
snail-shell  in  its  bill  and  bringing  it  down  with  force  on  a 
stone — usually  some  particular  or  favourite  stone,  round 
which  may  be  found  a  whole  heap  of  shell  debris — a  minia- 
ture 'kitchen  midden'  ('Animal  World').  The  mavis  breaks 
the  shell  of  Helix  nemoralis  'by  reiterated  strokes  against  some 
stone.  ...  It  is  not  uncommon  to  find  a  great  quantity  of 
fragments  of  shells  together,  as  if  brought  to  one  particular 
stone  for  that  purpose '  (Montagu).  There  are,  in  fact,  some- 
times small  '  shell-mounds '  about  these  favourite  '  anvils,' 
as  Atkinson  calls  them.  The  sacred  kingfisher  of  Australia 
kills  small  snakes  by  *  beating  their  heads  against  a  stone  or 
other  hard  substance'  (Jesse).  The  caama  (asse  or  swift  fox) 
of  Southern  Africa  is  said  to  break  the  eggs  of  the  ostrich 
by  rolling  them  with  its  paws  '  forcibly  against  a  stone  or 
other  hard  substance.'  Boddam  Whetham  mentions  a  large 
land-crab  of  Samoa  that,  after  having  removed  the  husk  of 
the  cocoa-nut,  carries  the  nut  to  the  top  of  a  tree,  and  lets  it 
fall  upon  a  rock  or  stone,  so  as  to  break  it. 

Stones  are  also  used  as  wedges  by  apes  (Watson).  Thus 
they  *  push  stones  between  the  open  valves  of  the  mussel- 
shell  to  prevent  their  closing'  (Biichner).  Certain  birds  em- 
ploy stones  for  their  weight  as  keep-fasts — for  instance,  in 
the  bowers  of  bower  birds  (Nichols).  And  certain  spiders 
use  fragments  of  gravel  to  steady  their  webs. 

The  elephant  breaks  off  leafy  branches  for  the  purpose 
of  using  them  variously — as  (1)  fans  or  punkahs  ;  (2)  whisks, 
to  brush  or  ward  off  flies  or  other  insect  plagues ;  (3)  sun- 
shades (Watson). 

Certain  of  the  anthropoid  apes  make  a  kind  of  tente 
d'abri,  a  rude  sort  of  hut,  of  the  branches  and  leaves  of 
trees — a  dwelling  quite  c'omparable  with  the  shelters  con- 
structed for  themselves  by  the  various  primitive  people  who 


428  USE   OF  NATURAL  INSTRUMENTS. 

had,  or  have,  advanced  a  stage  or  two  beyond  the  prehistoric 
troglodytes  or  cave-dwellers. 

Many  animals  show  their  sense  of  the  value  of,  or  neces- 
sity for,  their  natural  tools  or  weapons  by  keeping  them  in 
good  working  order — sharpening  them  in  the  majority  of 
cases.  The  Felince  generally  whet  or  sharpen  their  claws ; 
the  bear  sharpens  both  teeth  and  claws ;  the  boar  whets  its 
tusks;  for  this  purpose,  probably,  the  cat  defaces  leather- 
bound  books  in  libraries,  and  the  tiger  is  fond  of  scratching 
the  bark  of  trees,  especially  the  Indian  fig.  Hence,  too,  the 
propensity  of  the  stag  to  rub  his  antlers  against  trees  in 
summer,  to  clear  them  of  their  skin  and  to  polish  them. 


CHAPTEE    XXIV. 

USE  OF  MAN'S  INSTRUMENTS. 

NOT  a  few  animals  use,  and  in  some  cases  or  in  certain 
respects  in  the  same  way  as  man  himself  does,  various 
instruments  fashioned  by  him.  Thus  they  know  the  use, 
and  in  some  cases  apply  to  their  own  purposes  their  know- 
ledge of  such  use,  of — 

1.  Money  or  coin. 

2.  Doors  and  gates,  with  their  latches  or  handles,  bolts 
and  knockers. 

3.  Boxes  and  their  lids. 

4.  Instruments  of  punishment  or  restraint,  such  as  the 
whip  or  collar. 

5.  Fire-arms  or  other  weapons. 

6.  Ropes  and  chains. 

7.  Table  utensils,  such  as  cutlery,  crockery,  and  glass 
ware. 

8.  Household  furniture. 

9.  Windlasses,  spits,  pumps,  wheels,  bells,  turnip-slicers, 
forge  bellows,  paddles,  pestles  and  mortars,  hammers  and 
nails. 

10.  Bed  and  body  clothes  or  coverings. 

11.  Artificial  nests  or  dwellings  of  all  kinds. 

12.  Baskets  and  sacks. 

13.  Musical    instruments,   such   as   the   organ,   cymbal, 
drum. 

14.  Games,  such  as  cricket,  cards,  dominoes,  swings. 

15.  Torches  or  lanterns. 

16.  Canes,  sticks,  or  staffs  in  walking. 

The  use  of  man's  coins  by  the  dog  in  the  purchase  of 


430  USE   OF   MAN'S  INSTKUMENTS. 

eatables  for  itself  or  its  master  is  a  subject  of  the  highest 
interest  from  several  points  of  view,  illustrating  as  it  does 
not  only — 

1.  The  purchase  of   rolls  at  a  baker's   by   tendering   a 
copper  held  in  the  mouth,  involving  a  knowledge  of  the 
practice,  if  not  of  the  principle,  of  exchange  or  barter  j  but 
also — 

2.  The  earning  and  accumulation  or  saving  of  money,  with 
its  storage  for  the  future  needs  either  of  its  master  or  itself. 

3.  A  knowledge  of  coins  and  their  relative  value,  including 
the  getting  of  change. 

4.  Bargain-making  with  man. 

5.  Selection  of  a  particular  shop  and  dealer. 

6.  Perception  and  resentment  of  deception  or  dishonesty, 
or  attempts  thereat,  real  or  assumed. 

7.  The  use  of  credit  and  the  running  up  of  accounts. 

In  the  town  near  which  I  reside  there  are  at  least  two 
large  dogs  whose  peculiarities  are  well  known  to  many  of 
the  inhabitants,  and  especially  to  school  children,  which  dogs 
are  habitually  sent  by  their  masters — merchants  in  the  town 
— to  purchase  bread  for  themselves.  Each  carries  a  penny 
in  its  mouth,  and  each  trots  off,  whenever  a  penny  is  given 
to  it,  to  a  certain  baker's  shop.  There  they  rear  themselves 
on  their  hind  legs,  place  their  fore  paws  well  on  the  counter, 
and  thus  firmly. supporting  themselves  they  drop  their  penny 
on  the  counter,  receiving  a  roll  in  return.  This  they  carry 
back  in  their  mouths — in  one  case  intact,  the  dog  not  eating 
its  allowance  till  the  bread  being  broken  up  and  offered,  it 
understands  it  to  be  for  its  own  use,  and  devours  the  roll- 
fragments.  One  of  these  so-called  'performances'  I  wit- 
nessed and  conducted  for  myself  for  experimental  purposes. 
But  such  incidents  are  merely  types  of  others  of  common 
occurrence. 

Much  less  common,  but  more  suggestive,  incidents  are 
the  following : — A  certain  terrier,  now  dead — '  Captain ' — 
long  well  known  in  Eothesay,  publicly  begged  money  from 
suitable  persons,  showing  great  discrimination  in  the  se- 
lection of  the  persons  to  whom  he  made  his  appeal.  When 
he  had  an  excess  of  funds — more  than  he  required  to  buy  his 


USE  OF  MAN'S'  INSTRUMENTS.  431 

modicum-  of  bread  at  the  baker's — lie  hid  his  money  in  the 
office  of  his  master  (who  was,  and  is  still,  harbour  master), 
or  sometimes  about  the  quay,  in  which  latter  case  his  hoards 
were  frequently  found  and  appropriated  by  needy  and  greedy 
quay  porters  or  street  arabs.  He  carried  on  this  profitable 
business  of  begging  on  his  own  account  till  his  teeth  were 
quite  worn  down  by  the  incessant  friction  of  the  coins  he 
had  caught  up  and  carried  ('Animal  World'). 

A  certain  Newfoundland  dog,  when  offered  a  coin,  '  if  not 
at  the  moment  hungry/  would  '  hide  it  under  his  mat,'  thus 
gradually  accumulating  a  fund  of  coppers,  '  from  which  he 
abstracted  a  penny  or  halfpenny  at  a  time,  according  to  the 
state  of  his  appetite.  He  knew  perfectly  well  the  difference 
between  the  coins  and  their  relative  value,  and  that  he  was 
entitled  to  receive  two  biscuits  for  the  larger  sum  and  only 
one  for  the  halfpenny.'  Sometimes  *  he  only  wanted  a  single 
biscuit  ....  and  wished  for  the  change  out  of  his  penny. 
Now  and  then  he  took  a  fancy  for  a  French  roll  by  way  of 
variety.  ...  If  you  gave  him  a  sixpence  he  would  receive 
the  change,  and  then  allow  you  to  take  it  out  of  his  mouth, 
satisfied  with  his  two  biscuits '  (Macaulay). 

A  retriever,  '  in  consequence  of  being  repeatedly  tricked 
....  never  lets  the  penny  out  of  his  reach  until  the 
roll  is  laid  down.'  Another  dog  *  quite  knew  the  right- 
sized  bun,  and  used  to  keep  his  paw  on  the  penny  until  he 
got  it.'  A  third  dog  having  once  been  deceived  by  a  baker, 
went  ever  afterwards  to  a  rival  establishment  on  the  other 
side  of  the  street,  always,  however,  calling  first  at  the 
deceiver's  shop  to  let  him  see  the  coin  and  custom  he  was 
losing  (Wood).  Instances  have  been  given  also  of  dogs 
selecting  particular  coins  and  stealing  them ;  saving  money 
for  specific  ends ;  buying  rolls  or  meat  on  credit ;  running 
up  accounts  with  a  butcher  or  baker  (Watson).  But  it  is 
desirable,  that  the  details  of  some  of  these  incidents  should 
be  re-observed,  verified,  and  analysed. 

Beggars'  dogs  regularly  earn  or  make  money  for  the  sub- 
sistence of  themselves  and  their  masters.  They  sit  in  begging 
attitude ;  their  looks  are  eloquently  those  of  appeal ;  they 
receive  coins  in  tin  jugs  tied  round  their  necks ;  and  they 
29 


432  USE  OF  MAN'S  INSTRUMENTS. 

take  good  care  of  the  money  collected.  And  all  this  they  do 
sometimes  when  quite  alone,  without  supervision  or  direction, 
while  their  master  is  helplessly  bedridden  in  a  garret  lodging 
in  some  far-distant  city  street. 

The  dog  does  not  always  buy  bread  for  itself  only  and 
carry  it  in  its  mouth.  A  certain  Newfoundland  dog  acted 
merely  as  a  messenger,  carrying  a  basket  with  money,  and 
bringing  back  in  it  a  quantity  of  rolls,  that  were  safely  de- 
posited in  the  kitchen  for  man's  use  (Macaulay). 

The  dog  is  not  the  only  animal  that  buys  bread ;  nor  is 
bread,  in  some  shape  or  other,  the  only  article  of  food  pur- 
chased with  money  by  the  lower  animals ;  and  barter  among 
the  lower  animals  is  not  confined  to  the  exchange  of  coin 
for  bread ;  neither  are  the  mouth  or  teeth  the  only  means 
used  in  the  conveyance  of  coins  or  their  quid  pro  quo. 
Berkeley  tells  us  of  a  monkey  that  exchanged  with  a  boy 
some  nuts  she  had  for  his  apples.  A  coaita  monkey  bought 
wine,  carrying  it  in  a  pot,  and  refused  to  give  up  the  money 
unless  the  desired  article  were  first  supplied  (Cassell).  Here 
the  hands  or  fingers  no  doubt  were  employed,  as  man's  are, 
in  carrying  both  the  money  and  the  pot.  The  elephant,  too, 
sometimes  begs  for  money  and  spends  it,  buying  for  itself 
coveted  articles  of  food,  just  as  the  dog  does  (Buckland). 
Here  the  proboscis  is  probably  the  organ  of  conveyance. 

Many  animals  contrive  to  open  man's  doors  and  gates, 
using  sometimes  one  organ,  sometimes  another — two  animals, 
perhaps  of  different  species,  co-operating  for  the  given  end — 
the  one  lifting  a  latch  or  turning  a  handle,  the  other  pushing 
the  door  or  gate  open. 

A  certain  *  Peter,'  a  large,  handsome  torn  cat  belonging  to 
a  near  relation  of  my  own,  was  in  the  habit  of  lifting  with 
its  paws  at  least  three  different  door-latches.  One  was  the 
latch  of  a  hot-plate  connected  with  the  kitchen  fire,  a 
chamber  which  he  entered  for  the  heat's  sake,  and  in  which 
he  would  warm  himself  for  hours  at  a  time.  Another 
was  that  of  a  cellar  door,  in  which  a  companion  dog  was 
sometimes  confined  on  account  of  its  dirty  habits  in  the 
house.  Whenever  Peter  heard  the  dog  whine  from  its 
prison  he  set  it  free  by  lifting  the  door  latch. 


USE  OF  MAN'S  INSTRUMENTS.  433 

Door  latches  or  handles  are  lifted  or  turned  by  cats  in 
different  ways.  In  some  cases  the  paws  are  directly  made 
nse  of  to  turn  the  handle,  the  two  fore  paws  being  required 
to  do  what  man  does  with  one  hand.  In  other  cases  the 
animal  makes  a  spring  at  the  latch,  holds  on  to  it  by  means 
of  one  or  both  paws,  and  lifts  it  by  the  suspended  weight 
of  its  body.  In  such  a  case  it  not  unfrequently  happens 
that  another  cat,  or  more  probably  a  dog,  co-operates  with 
it  by  pushing  open  the  door  as  soon  as  the  latch  is  lifted. 
In  other  cases,  again,  of  a  rarer  kind  however,  the  cat  holds 
on  with  one  paw  and  raises  the  latch  with  the  other. 

A  certain  cat  '  opened  a  kitchen  door  by  jumping  up  and 
hanging  on  to  the  handle  of  the  latch'  (Wood).  Another  'used 
to  let  herself  into  different  rooms  by  jumping  up  and  hanging 
on  to  the  latch  of  the  door'  ('Animal  World ').  A  third 
opens  a  door  by  springing  at  and  hanging  by  one  foot  to 
the  door-handle,  raising  the  latch  with  the  other  paw.  *  The 
latch  being  lifted,  she  descends  and  pushes  open  the  door ; ' 
and  this  was  done  so  frequently  that  the  animal  became 
most  troublesome  to  the  servants  (Jesse).  In  a  fourth  case 
a  dog  rapped  at  a  door ;  a  cat  sprang  up  and  struck  the 
latch  so  as  to  lift  it,  while  the  dog  pushed  the  door  open, 
and  so  gained  the  desired  entrance  (Wood). 

Where  it  is  found  impossible  to  manipulate  a  latch  or 
door-handle,  both  the  dog  and  cat  sometimes  make  use  of 
door  knockers  and  bells  in  order  to  gain  admittance.  Thus 
a  certain  cat  '  used  to  knock  at  the  door  when  she  wanted  to 
come  in,  and  would  endeavour  to  turn  the  handle  by  taking 
it  between  her  paws  '  (Wood).  The  cat  in  such  cases  gets 
at  the  knocker  just  as  she  gets  at  the  latch,  but  more  easily, 
making  a  spring  at  the  knocker  so  as  to  lift  it  suddenly  and 
forcibly  with  one  of  her  paws.  The  use  of  door  knockers  by 
the  dog  is  mentioned  by  Watson.  But  cats  and  dogs  are 
not  the  only  animals  that  use  door  knockers,  nor  are  paws 
the  only  organs  or  instruments  used  in  lifting  or  striking 
them.  Wood  tells  us  of  a  horse  that  lifted  a  knocker  with 
its  nose  in  order  to  get  its  morning  meal. 

Nor  are  cats  the  only  animals  that  can  open  doors  or 
gates.  Certain  of  the  Quadrumana — for  instance  the 


434  USE  OF  MAN'S  INSTRUMENTS. 

orang  and  chimpanzee — open  doors  in  the  same  way  that 
man  does,  even  using  a  key,  as  in  the  case  of  a  certain 
chimpanzee  (Houzeau).  One  orang-utan  opened  a  padlock, 
using  a  stick  as  a  key,  or  more  properly  a  lever  (Houzeau), 
and  others  open  other  kinds  of  locks,  including  those  of  doors 
(Pierquin).  A  certain  retriever  had  a  knack  of  forcing 
shutters  and  opening  doors,  so  as  to  effect  his  escape  when 
imprisoned.  A  horse  was  troublesome  from  its  ability  to 
open  its  stable  door.  A  cow  '  was  in  the  habit  of  lifting  the 
latch  with  her  hora,  and  then  pushing  the  gate  open ; ' 
while  other  cows  opened  a  byre  door  by  '  inserting  the  tip 
of  a  horn  into  the  finger  hole,  lifting  the  latch,  and  then 
drawing  the  door  towards  them ; '  so  that  we  have,  even  in 
the  same  species,  sometimes  pulling,  sometimes  pushing,  as 
circumstances  require.  Even  an  ass  was  sagacious  enough 
to  open  every  gate  about  a  house  (Wood).  In  some  cases 
the  *  trap-doors '  of  spiders '  nests  in  the  South  of  Europe 
'  have  a  handle  or  flap  attached  ....  for  more  convenient 
use  of  the  spider '  (Moggridge),  probably  in  holding  them 
down  against  entrants;  for  beetles  lift  up  or  open  such 
hinged  doors,  and  so  gain  access  to  the  nests  of  a  New 
Zealand  species  (Gillies). 

While,  however,  it  is  far  from  uncommon  for  cats,  dogs, 
horses,  ponies,  donkeys,  or  cows  to  open  the  doors  of  houses, 
rooms,  stables,  or  byres,  or  the  gates  of  gardens,  paddocks, 
or  poultry  yards,  it  is  not  at  all  common  for  them  to  shut 
them.  But  this  is  sometimes  done  when  the  animal  has  a 
sufficient  motive.  Usually  its  object  is  simply  to  gain  access 
or  egress.  But  occasionally  an  astute  animal  thinks  it 
desirable  or  necessary  to  barricade  out  of  a  tempting  pad- 
dock a  hated  rival,  or  to  conceal  the  evidences  of  its  trans- 
gression of  its  master's  rules  ;  or  it  may  be  that  it  shuts  it 
because  it  knows  the  door  or  gate  is  usually,  and  should  be, 
shut  when  not  in  use.  Thus  a  gentleman,  who  has  been  a 
great  traveller  and  a  keen  observer  of  the  habits  of  wild 
and  domestic  animals,  and  is  now  a  proprietor-farmer  in  one 
of  the  western  islands  of  Scotland,  told  me  of  a  pony  of  his 
own  that  both  opens  and  shuts  field-gates  by  means  of  its 
teeth  or  otherwise,  the  shutting  or  closing  being  a  com- 


USE  OF  MAN'S  INSTRUMENTS.  435 

paratively  rare,  while  the  opening  of  them  is  a  common, 
occurrence.  It  shuts  gates,  for  instance,  against  other  ani- 
mals that  are  not  its  favourites,  and  especially  against  a 
particular  horse  which  it  dislikes  and  kickg,  as  well  as  bar- 
ricades out  of  good  pastures.  It  closes  them  also  after 
itself,  to  prevent  the  discovery  of  its  delinquency  in  going 
from  a  permitted  pasture  into  a  forbidden  one. 

Monkeys,  too,  in  theft,  shut  as  well  as  open  locks  and 
doors.  They  turn  the  key  in  a  door,  so  as  to  make  it  fast, 
when  they  wish  to  prevent  intrusion  upon,  or  interference 
with,  their  depredations.  Shutting  of  doors  is  mentioned 
also  as  occurring  in  the  dog  (Watson). 

Many  of  the  Quadruinana  that  have  been  tamed  or 
domesticated  by  man — that  have  become  his  household  pets, 
and  even  members  of  his  household — use,  and  in  the  same 
way  that  their  masters  do — 

1.  Table  utensils — including  plates,  cups,  and  saucers ; 
knives,  forks,  and  spoons;  glasses  and  tumblers,  decanters 
and  jugs  ;  toothpicks  and  serviettes. 

2.  Household  furniture — such  as  chairs  and  tables,  beds 
and  bedsteads. 

3.  Man's  clothing,  both  body  and  bed,  including  finery  or 
ornament  in  dress,  and  uniform. 

Various  of  the  anthropoid  and  other  apes  sit  at  table  with 
man  and  partake  of  his  meals,  behaving  frequently  with 
admirable  propriety,  the  result  partly  of  imitation  of  man's 
habits,  partly  of  man's  tuition.  They  eat  and  drink  in  the 
same  way  that  man  does,  employing  their  fingers  and  hands 
in  holding  glasses  or  cups,  forks  or  knives,  in  the  same 
way,  and  using,  moreover,  the  same  articles  of  food,  and 
the  same  beverages. 

The  orang-utan  wipes  its  lips  or  mouth  after  eating, 
using  a  serviette ;  it  employs  a  toothpick  as  it  sees  its 
master  do ;  it  makes  appropriate  use  of  a  teapot,  cups, 
saucers,  and  plates,  knives,  forks,  and  spoons  ;  among  other 
table  civilities  or  courtesies  it  touches  glasses  with  its  neigh- 
bour ;  it  draws  corks,  pours  out  wine  or  other  fluids  from 
bottles,  and  drinks  from  glasses.  Moreover,  it  makes  a  bed 
and  arranges  bedding  ;  it  employs  a  chair  not  only  for  sitting 


436  USE   OF  MAN'S  INSTRUMENTS. 

on  at  table,  but  as  a  mount  to  get  at  anything  out  of  its  or- 
dinary reach  (Houzeau,  Pierquin,  Cassell).  An  orang-utan 
that  used  glass  vessels  for  drinking  from  never  broke  them, 
but  '  put  them  carefully  aside  after  using  '  (Biichner) . 

The  chimpanzee  behaves  in  a  similar  way  when  a  member 
of  man's  household,  using  chairs,  serviettes,  glasses,  cups 
and  saucers,  spoons  and  forks,  making  beds,  sweeping  the 
house,  and  assisting  the  cook  in  carrying  water  (Houzeau). 

Not  a  few  animals  have  a  knowledge  of  the  use  or  effect  of 
various  of  man's  weapons,  and  this  knowledge  inspires  them 
with  a  salutary  dread  that  in  its  turn  leads  them  to  keep 
beyond  their  range.  Thus  a  dread  of  the  gun  is  characteristic 
of  the  crow,  rook,  and  raven  in  our  own  country,  where  sad 
experience  has  taught  them  too  many  practical  lessons  of  its 
dangerous  power  (Watson).  To  such  an  extent  is  this  fear 
carried,  acting  on  their  imagination,  that  the  very  sight  of 
a  gun — which  may  be  empty — or  of  anything  resembling  a 
gun  or  a  man  with  a  gun,  keeps  these  wary  birds  at  least 
out  of  rifle-range  of  man. 

But  certain  animals  can,  and  do,  turn  man's  weapons, 
and  successfully  sometimes,  against  himself.  Thus  Drum- 
mond  describes  a  baboon  that  was  wounded  by  a  Kaffir's 
spear  as  snatching  the  weapon  from  its  own  body  and  trying 
to  stab  him  with  it,  as  well  as  plucking  one  that  had  missed 
its  mark  and  stuck  in  a  tree  and  throwing  it  back  at  him, 
'  though  it  came  crossways,  and  not  point  first,  as  a  spear 
ought  to.'  Schweinfurth,  too,  tells  us  that  chimpanzees 
in  Central  Africa,  when  driven  to  bay  by  the  Niam-niam 
hunters,  armed  with  spears,  wrest  these  spears  from  their 
human  pursuers,  against  whom  they  'make  good  use  of 
them.'  The  orai*g  has  been  taught  even  to  use  man's  fire- 
arms (Watson). 

The  horse,  ass,  pig,  and  perhaps  some  other  animals, 
help  themselves  to  water  occasionally  by  working  pumps  or 
pump-handles.  A  pony  has  been  known  to  turn  on  and 
shut  off  a  water  tap  with  its  teeth,  letting  on  and  stop- 
ping the  flow  of  water,  satiating  its  thirst,  and  then  pre- 
venting waste  ('Animal  World').  This  shutting  the  tap  is, 
like  shutting  gates  or  doors,  the  result  of  unusual  care  or 


USE  OF  MAN'S  INSTRUMENTS.  437 

thoughtfulness,  the  commoner  procedure  in  all  cases  being 
to  leave  them — whether  taps,  gates,  or  doors — open.  Wood 
tells  us  of  a  horse  that  was  in  the  habit  of  working  a  pump 
for  his  own  behoof.  He  'took  the  handle  in  his  teeth, 
worked  it  up  and  down,  and  when  the  water  was  in  full  flow 
placed  his  mouth  under  the  spout  to  drink.'  An  old  pig  did 
something  of  the  same  kind  in  order  to  get  at  a  supply  of 
whey,  taking  hold  of  the  pump-handle  by  its  mouth  ('  Animal 
World'). 

Other  animals  work  other  instruments  in  a  similar  way. 
Thus  a  cow  was  in  the  habit  of  '  turning  the  handle  of  a 
turnip-slicer  when  the  hopper  had  any  turnips  in  it,'  and 
then  fed  on  the  slices  that  dropped  out  (Jesse).  Certain 
performing  elephants  *  play  the  organ  '  simply  by  regularly 
turning  its  handle.  Certain  dogs  were  once  used  to  turn 
spits  in  kitchens,  and  were  known,  from  the  nature  of 
their  special  training  or  breeding,  as  *  turnspits.'  A  hair- 
di'esser's  dog  turned  a  wheel  that  moved  a  revolving  hair- 
brush— the  dog  and  its  wheel  being  stationed  in  a  room 
above  the  perfumer's  operating  chamber,  the  animal  acting 
at  the  sound  of  a  bell  rung  by  its  master  ('  Animal  World '). 
A  tame  chimpanzee  on  shipboard  took  its  place  among  the 
sailors  in  working  the  capstan  (Houzeau).  The  titi  monkey 
can  use  man's  paddles  in  rowing  canoes,  keeping  time  or 
'stroke'  (Cassell).  The  dog  and  other  animals  have  been 
taught  to  blow  the  forge  bellows,  or  otherwise  to  assist  the 
blacksmith. 

Certain  of  the  Quadrumana — various  dogs  and  cats  and 
other  animals — use  ropes  or  their  equivalents  in  a  consider- 
able variety  of  ways.  Perhaps  the  commonest  illustration  of 
their  use  is  &eZZ-pulling,  while  the  most  important  is  the 
conveyance  of  ropes  ashore  or  on  shipboard  during  ship- 
wreck. Bell  pulling  or  ringing  is  a  common  trick  or  feat 
of  the  dog  or  cat— one  that  it  teaches  itself,  or  acquires 
for  itself,  for  its  own  ends.  These  ends  include  not  only 
the  common  one  of  gaining  admission  to  this  or  that  house 
or  room,  but  also  the  commendable  one  of  keeping  servants 
on  the  alert  (Watson),  or  of  communicating  information  to 
them,  as  well  as  the  nefarious  one  of  deceiving  servants  in 


438  USE  OF  MAN'S  INSTKUMENTS. 

order  to  plunder  them — distracting  their  attention,  and 
meanwhile,  for  example,  stealing  from  the  dinner  trays  they 
may  have  set  down,  or  the  dinner  tables  they  may  have  left 
unguarded,  in  their  haste  and  unsuspiciousness.  A  lodge- 
deeper  has  trained  his  poodle  to  ring  a  given  bell  by  pulling 
a  rope  whenever  a  carriage  comes  in  sight,  whereby  its 
master  is  warned  in  due  time  to  have  the  gate  opened 
('Animal  World '). 

Moreover,  the  cat  and  the  dog  in  various  ways  answer 
or  attend  to  man's  bells  or  bell-ringing :  they  know  what 
they  signal,  and  act  accordingly — the  dinner  signal  or  bell 
being  naturally  that  which  meets  with  promptest  attention 
and  excites  liveliest  interest.  But  not  second  to  it  in  many 
cases  is  the  door  bell  and  the  ring  that  announces,  or  is 
supposed  to  announce,  the  home-coming  from  business  or 
a  journey,  from  church  or  shopping,  of  some  much-loved 
master  or  mistress. 

A  dog,  swimming  to  a  ship,  had  a  rope  with  a  noosed  end 
thrown  to  it  by  friendly  sailors.  The  sagacious  animal  first 
got  its  fore  paws,  then  its  head  and  chest,  and  lastly  its 
body,  fairly  into  the  noose,  and  was  thus  hoisted  safely  on 
board.  But  in  carrying  ropes  to  or  from  vessels  at  sea,  in 
cases  of  shipwreck  or  otherwise,  the  dog  usually  tows  the 
rope  by  means  of  its  mouth — holding  it  firmly  between  its 
teeth.  On  board  ship  the  tame  chimpanzee  can  handle 
ropes  like  a  sailor  (Houzeau). 

Berkeley  gives  an  amusing  instance  of  the  use  of  hammer 
and  nails  by  a  monkey.  In  the  absence  of  its  master  it  got 
access  to  his  amateur  workshop,  and  used  a  hammer  and 
nails,  on  which  it  laid  hold,  in  the  way  it  had  seen  its 
master  use  them.  '  He  (the  monkey)  nailed  everything  on 
the  long  table  and  about  the  room  together,  without  refer- 
ence to  colour,  sort,  or  size,  and  grinned  his  satisfaction 
when  he  saw  his  kind  master  taken  by  surprise.' 

Certain  generalisations  in  connection  with  the  use  by  the 
lower  animals  of  tools  or  weapons  are  here  desirable. 

In  the  first  place,  these  animals  are  given  to  select  that 
instrument  which  is  at  once  most  accessible,  nearest  at 
hand,  and  most  suitable  for  their  purpose.  Of  other  animals 


USE  OF  MAN'S  INSTRUMENTS.  439 

it  may  quite  as  truly  be  said  as  of  man,  '  Necessitate  quodlibet 
telum  utile  est*  (In  necessity  whatever  avails  is  a  useful 
weapon). 

If,  therefore,  instruments  fashioned  by  man  present  them- 
selves, and  are  quite  as  serviceable  as,  or  'more  suitable 
than,  the  natural  implements  they  would  otherwise  employ, 
they  substitute  the  artificial  for  the  natural.  Thus  thrushes, 
that  usually  break  snail-shells  against  pet  stones  selected  by 
themselves,  sometimes  employ  the  ironwork  of  garden  seats 
('  Science  Gossip  ') . 

In  this  case,  as  in  many  others,  we  have  also  the  conjoint 
use  of  the  natural  and  artificial  instrument ;  for  the  thrush 
uses  its  beak  to  hold  the  shell  which  it  dashes  against  the 
hard  iron.  The  dog  seizes  the  trailing  bridle  of  the  runaway 
horse  or  pony  in  or  by  its  teeth,  and  so  stops  its  flight.  Dogs 
or  other  animals  that  are  taught  to  blow  bellows  must  use 
both  their  own  mouths,  teeth,  paws,  or  hands,  and  man's 
instrument. 

Whether,  moreover,  their  instruments  are  natural  or 
artificial,  or  partly  the  one,  partly  the  other,  man's  imple- 
ments being  worked  by  means  of  animal  hands,  paws,  teeth, 
mouths,  or  other  natural  organs,  other  animals,  like  man, 
may  be  said  to  make  the  most  of  such  instruments,  to  employ 
them  to  the  lest  effect. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

USE   OF   CLOTHING   AND    SHELTEE. 

ONE  of  the  mistakes  committed  by  those  who  are  perpetually 
endeavouring  to  differentiate  man  from  other  animals  is  to 
assert  that  man  is  the  only  animal  that  wears  clothing  or 
dress ;  the  fact  being,  as  is,  or  ought  to  be,  well  known,  that 
many  savage  races  live  habitually  in  a  state  of  absolute 
nudity,  whereas — and  this  circumstance  is  less  likely  to  be 
familiar — certain  of  the  lower  animals  either  construct  rude 
clothing  for  themselves  or  make  use  of  that  provided  by 
man.  No  clothing  is  worn  by  the  Andaman  Islanders 
(Owen).  I  have  myself  seen  large  bodies  of  Egyptian  fel- 
lahs in  a  state  of  absolute  nudity  labouring  on  public  works 
along  the  line  of  the  Alexandria  and  Cairo  Eailway.  Naked- 
ness, the  non-use  of  clothes,  also  characterises  the  wolf 
children  of  India,  as  well  as  other  forms  of  brute,  beast  or 
wild  children.  Of  an  Indian  wolf-child  Gerhardt  tells  us, 
'  He  never  kept  on  any  clothing  ; '  and  of  another,  *  Clothes 
he  would  never  wear,  but  tore  them  up  into  fine  shreds.' 
And,  lastly,  even  in  civilised  life  nudity  is  a  common  propen- 
sity in  the  human  idiot  and  lunatic,  as  well  as  in  various 
other  conditions  of  disease,  such  as  fevers. 

On  the  other  hand,  '  A  friend  of  mine,'  says  a  corre- 
spondent of  '  Nature,'  *  had  a  tame  baboon  which  .... 
wrapped  itself  in  a  sheepskin  like  a  Kaffir.'  Another  baboon 
used  leaves  or  mats  as  a  covering  for  its  head  and  body 
(Nichols).  Monkeys  exposed  to  cold  use  wraps  besides 
'  cuddling '  each  other  for  mutual  warmth  (Cassell).  The 
young  soko  '  covers  herself  with  a  mat  to  sleep,'  according 
to  Livingstone.  Others  of  the  anthropoid  apes  wear  man's 


USE   OF   CLOTHING  AND   SHELTEE.  441 

clothes,  in  the  same  way  that  man  does ;  and  not  only  so, 
but  they  frequently  show  a  pride  or  vanity  in  their  clothes, 
dress,  or  finery,  as  savages  so  often  do.  Thus  a  female 
orang  at  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  Paris,  wears  a  surtout,  and 
'  prudishly  draws  it  down  over  her  feet  on  the  approach  of 
strangers.'  She  '  sleeps  in  a  bed,  with  sheets  and  blankets, 
putting  her  hands  under  the  covering  or  up  the  sleeves  of 
her  night  dress  to  keep  them  from  the  cold.' ' 

Dr.  Yvan,  who  was  attached  to  the  French  expedition  to 
China  in  the  year  1843,  tells  us  that  'a  certain  Borneo  orang 
clothed  himself  as  soon  as  ever  he  could  lay  hold  of  any  piece 
of  stuff  for  the  purpose.'  Lady  Yerney  mentions  an  orang 
on  shipboard  that  put  on  a  flannel  shawl  every  morning  as 
it  became  cold,  crossing  it  tidily  over  its  chest,  in  imitation 
of  an  Indian  Governor-General's  wife  who  was  on  board. 
Another  orang  made  her  own  bed,  using  blankets  and 
pillows  (Cassell).  And  fondness  for  dress  or  toilette,  even 
for  perfumery,  the  result,  no  doubt,  here  again,  of  imitation, 
has  been  noticed  in  the  same  animal  by  other  authors 
(Pierquin).  The  chimpanzee,  when  tame,  also  sometimes 
wears  clothes,  dresses  himself  in  part  at  least,  and  exhibits 
the  same  kind  of  pride  in  his  dress  that  many  savages  do. 
Many  domestic  or  tame  monkeys  or  apes  also  dress,  or 
allow  themselves  to  be  dressed,  in  man's  habiliments,  as 
must  be  familiar  to  all  who  have  seen  the  monkey  pets  or 
assistants  of  organ  grinders  in  London  and  other  large  cities. 
Reaumur  describes  the  larva  of  a  fly  as  dressing  itself  with 
the  skins  of  Aphides,  or  in  place  thereof  with  silk  or  paper. 
Kirby  and  Spence  describe  certain  bees  as  clothiers. 

Many  animals  prepare  their  own  natural  beds,  and  some 
use  natural  bed-clothes  or  wraps,  while  others  avail  them- 
selves of  the  beds  and  bedding  provided  by  man.  Orangs 
prepare  beds  of  boughs  and  leaves  between  or  under  trees. 
They  generally  lie  on  their  back  or  side,  resting  the  head  on 
their  hands.  In  cold,  windy,  and  rainy  nights  they  cover 
themselves  with  branches  or  leaves,  and  hide  themselves  under 
them  (Biichner  and  Nichols).  Wallace  refers  to  the  orang 
preparing  itself  a  sleeping-place  for  the  night.  Dr.  Abel, 

1  '  Graphic,'  March  6,  1875. 


442          USE  OF  CLOTHING  AND  SHELTER. 

in  Java,  had  a  young  one  '  that  used  to  prepare  himself  a 
proper  bed  every  evening  with  boughs  and  leaves  .... 
Afterwards,  on  the  voyage  home,  ...  he  used  to  make  him- 
self a  bed  with  sail-cloths,  and  rolled  himself  up  therein  .... 
If  canvas  was  not  to  be  had  he  would  take  the  sailors' 
shirts  and  clothes  which  were  hung  up  to  dry.  Vosmaer 
had  an  orang  that  exhibited  the  same  cleverness  in  ar- 
ranging his  bed.'  Of  another  on  board  ship  it  is  recorded, 
e  He  never  came  on  deck  without  bringing  his  woollen 
blanket  and  wrapping  himself  in  it.  His  bed  he  accepted 
gladly,  although  he  had  never  known  such  a  thing  pre- 
viously,' and  before  sleeping  in  it  he  himself  made  it  up 
properly  (Biichner).  A  writer  in  the  '  Fancier's  Gazette ' 
describes  his  dog,  after  fighting  a  match,  going  home  and 
betaking  himself  forthwith  to  his  master's  bed,  in  which  he 
was  found  between  the  sheets,  with  his  head  on  the  pillow. 
'He  had  made  down  the  bed  for  himself  and  turned  in,  and 
the  black  mud  and  blood  from  his  coat  had  soaked  through 
both  sheets  and  feathers.' 

What  has  been  called  the  clothing  instinct,  then,  cannot 
be  said  to  be  confined  to  man ;  for  not  only  is  it  frequently 
absent  in  him,  but  it  is  occasionally  present  in  some  other  ani- 
mals that  use  dress  or  clothing,  shelter  or  protection  for  the 
body  by  day  and  night,  either  of  a  natural  or  artificial  kind, 
including  ornament  or  finery,  the  decoration  of  the  person 
(Houzeau).  In  their  trappings  and  insignia  of  rank,  or  of 
the  rank  of  their  riders,  such  animals  as  the  horse  and  ele- 
phant even  show  a  love  of  finery  or  dress,  and  it  cannot  be 
said  that  either  the  love  or  the  use  of  dress  arises  in  all 
cases  from  imitation  of  man  and  his  customs  or  costumes. 

Another  error  of  those  who  contend  for  man's  supremacy 
o'ver  all  other  animals  is  to  describe  him  as  the  only  animal 
that  constructs  for  himself,  in  the  form  of  dwellings  of  some 
kind,  a  permanent  and  proper  shelter  from  the  vicissitudes 
of  the  weather  ;  for,  in  the  first  place,  there  are,  or  have 
been,  many  savage  races  who  either  constructed  or  con- 
struct no  dwellings  of  any  kind,  or  whose  huts  or  hovels 
cannot  compare  architecturally  with  the  nests  or  other 
habitations  of  many  of  the  lower  animals.  Certain  pre- 


USE  OF  CLOTHING  AND  SHELTER.  443 

historic  peoples,  some  ancient  savage  races,  such  as  the 
Caribs,  and  also  some  existing  savages,  made  or  make  use  of 
the  natural  shelter  afforded  by  rocks,  caves,  forests,  or  trees. 
The  Australian  aborigines  and  other  races,  semi-civilised  as 
well  as  primitive,  have  no  fixed  dwelling-place,  are  true 
nomads ;  and  their  tents  or  huts,  when  they  have  any,  are 
of  a  temporary  and  trivial  character. 

The  South  African  Bushmen  live  '  in  holes  in  the  earth, 
dug  out  with  their  hands '  (Biichner).  According  to  the 
missionary  Sicherer  they  '  live  in  holes  dug  in  the  earth 
....  thatched  with  reeds  so  badly  put  together  that  the 
rain  pours  through.  Here  they  lie  close,  like  pigs  in  a 
stye.  They  have  neither  huts  nor  sheds.'  Their  houses, 
according  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Moffatt,  are  mere  holes  in  the 
earth,  lined  with  grass,  covered  with  tree  branches.  The  huts 
of  many  Central  African  savages  resemble  externally  the 
ant-hills  of  Termites  (Adanson).  There  are  no  dwellings,  or 
no  fixed  ones,  among  the  Dokos.  The  natives  of  the 
Philippine  Islands  and' Borneo  sleep  under  trees,  or  on  trees, 
or  in  caves.  The  ape  men  of  India  also  live  in  trees.  The 
Apache  Indians  sleep  in  hollows  of  the  ground  (Biichner). 
Where  constructed  abodes  occur  in  primitive  or  savage  man 
they  resemble  those  of  many  animals  in  the  equal  absence  in 
their  construction  of  calculation,  science,  and  art  (Houzeau). 
The  Veddas  of  Ceylon,  according  to  Hartshorne,  live  in 
forests  without  dwellings,  or  they  shelter  themselves  in  caves 
or  hollow  tree-trunks,  or  roost  on  trees.  Dwellings  are 
most  primitive  in  the  Andaman  Islands  (Owen).  The 
Bukones  '  roost '  in  trees  on  a  platform  of  sticks,  as  do  also 
certain  of  the  anthropoid  apes.  These  human  dwellings  are 
nests  rather  than  huts,  though  covered  with  a  cone-shaped 
roof,  also  of  sticks,  thatched  with  grass  (Lady  Yerney). 

The  wild  people — the  jungle  dwarfs — of  the  Western 
Ghats  in  the  Tinnivelly  district  of  India  have  no  fixed  dwell- 
ings or  dwelling-places.  They  '  sleep  in  any  convenient  spot, 
generally  between  two  rocks,  or  in  caves  near  which  they 
happen  to  be  benighted  '  (Bond).  These  wild  folk  of  the  hill 
jungles  of  the  Madras  Presidency  are  in  reality  modern 
troglodytes  or  cave-dwellers,  the  representatives  of  those 


444          USE  OF  CLOTHING  AND  SHELTER. 

prehistoric  men  whose  remains  possess  so  much  interest  for 
anthropologists.  The  beast  men  and  wolf  children  of  India 
and  Europe  resemble  savage  races  on  the  one  hand,  and 
many  wild  animals  on  the  other,  in  their  non-possession  of 
other  shelter  than  that  which  is  afforded  by  caves  and 
forests.  Not  only  have  they  no  proper  dwelling,  but  there 
is  incapacity  for  constructing  artificial  shelter.  The  wolf 
children  of  India  inhabit  caves  and  forests,  just  as  do 
the  wolves  with  whom  they  associate  and  by  whom  it  is 
currently  believed  they  are,  in  some  instances  at  least, 
brought  up.  '  At  the  Lucknow  madhouse,'  says  Gerhardt, 
'  there  was  an  elderly  fellow  ....  who  had  been  dug  out 
of  a  wolves'  den  by  an  European  doctor.' 

Even  in  civilised  Scotland  of  the  present  day  we  have  a 
race  of  cave-dwellers  in  Caithness-shire,  whose  mental 
characteristics  have  been  described  by  Dr.  Arthur  Mitchell. 
And  in  the  large  cities  of  England  there  are  hosts  of  waifs 
and  strays  of  society — of  gutter  men  and  children — of  tramps 
of  all  kinds,  who  sleep  under  railway  arches  or  in  other 
equivalents  of  caves.  In  Scripture  times,  too,  man  dwelt  fre- 
quently under  trees,  stones,  or  rocks,  or  in  caves. 

If  the  nature  of  man's  dwelling  is  to  be  regarded  as  any 
reflex  of  his  degree  of  mental  development,  much  cannot  be 
said  for  the  present  mental  status,  the  constructive  skill,  of 
the  hut  builders  and  dwellers  of  our  own  Scottish  and 
Irish  highlands  and  islands.  The  hovels  of  the  Hebridean 
Islanders,  for  instance,  are  no  advance  on  those  of  many 
savages,  and  are  not  equal,  mutatis  mutandis,  to  the  nests  of 
many  birds.  Thus,  when  compared  with  them,  the  bowers 
of  the  bower  bird  appear  at  a  decided  advantage  (Nichols). 

On  the  other  hand,  the  chimpanzee  constructs  a  dwelling 
or  hut — albeit  there  are  certain  defects  of  construction  in 
the  roof  (Du  Chaillu).  The  gorilla  also  build  huts — tentes 
a  Vabri  (Cassell).  Wallace  mentions  the  orang  as  making 
in  trees,  with  boughs,  what  he  calls  <  a  leafy  hut,  that  quite 
concealed  him  from  our  view.'  Cameron  is  said  to  have 
seen,  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Tanganyika,  monkeys  that 
'  build  a  new  house  every  day.' 

Again,  the  beaver  weaves  a  protection  against  cold  in 


USE  OF  CLOTHING  AND  SHELTER.          445 

the  form  of  a  round  or  dome-shaped,  conjoint  or  compound, 
dwelling1,  resembling  in  its  structure  the  basket-making  of 
man,  and  the  wattle  huts  of  savages  or  settlers.  The  round 
form  of  the  beaver's  hut  appears  to  be  a  natural  or  primi- 
tive shape  of  the  dwelling  both  in  man  and  other  animals. 
It  is  illustrated  alike  in  the  hut  of  the  savage,  the  nest  of 
the  bird,  and  the  cell  of  the  bee  (Houzeau). 

Moreover,  various  animals  show  their  appreciation  of 
shelter  from  wind  and  rain,  from  shower  or  sunshine,  by 
availing  themselves  of  the  protection  of  man's  houses,  sheds, 
walls,  hedges,  or  fences,  as  well  as  of  the  natural  cover  of 
forests  or  trees,  rocks  or  stones,  hill-sides  or  stream-banks. 

And,  lastly,  they  recognise  the  necessity  for  shelter  in  the 
case  of  man  ;  and  here  their  generosity,  unselfishness,  disin- 
terestedness, or  self-sacrifice  becomes  manifested,  as  it  is  in 
so  many  other  circumstances.  The  elephant,  horse,  and 
other  large  animals  either  offer  the  shelter  afforded  by  their 
own  bodies  to  their  masters — shelter  not  merely  against  ex- 
cessive heat  or  cold,  but  not  unfrequently  against  the  cruelty 
of  fellow-man — or  they  afford  it,  whether  or  not  man  seeks 
it,  if  they  see  its  desirability  on  his  behalf.  The  Arab  horse, 
for  instance,  in  the  sun-scorched  plains  of  the  East,  offers 
the  shelter  of  its  body  against  the  powerful  sun-rays,  while 
runaway  or  drunken  sepoys  have  found  an  asylum  under  the 
bellies  of  friendly  elephants. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

PKEPARATION   OP    FOOD. 

AMONG  the  many  epithets  that  have  been  bestowed  on  man 
to  distinguish  him  from  all  other  animals,  he  has  been 
described  as  pre-eminently  a  cooking  animal — the  only 
animal  who  cooks  or  prepares  his  food  prior  to  using  it. 
The  futility  or  fallacy  of  such  a  distinction,  however,  is 
proved  by  the  fact  that,  on  the  one  hand,  there  are  whole 
races  of  man  that,  ignorant  of  the  production  of  fire,  have 
and  take  no  means  of  preparing  their  food ;  while,  on  the 
other,  there  are  certain  animals,  equally  unable  themselves 
to  produce  fire,  that  yet  use  various  means  of  preparing 
food,  or  have  the  sense  to  adopt  the  results  of  man's  cookery. 

In  the  first  place,  then,  there  are  many  savage  races  of 
man  who  use  flesh  and  fruits  in  their  raw  state,  sometimes 
even  in  a  condition  of  disgusting  putridity.  Not  only  so, 
but  they  devour  living  animals,  or  flesh  cut  from  living 
animals.  Moreover,  they  tear  flesh  food  with  their  teeth, 
after  the  manner  of  the  Carnivora. 

The  animal  food  on  which  such  savages  subsist  includes — 

1.  Wild  animals,  both  of  the  larger  and  smaller  sort, 
including  serpents  and  lizards,  mice  and  other  'vermin.' 

2.  Fish. 

3.  Molluscs,  such  as  snails,    and  various   marine  shell- 
fish, such  as  cockles,  oysters,  and  mussels. 

4.  Various  worms  and  insects  or  their  grubs,  including 
ants  and  lice. 

5.  Various  animal  products — such  as  wild  honey,  milk, 
marrow,  fat,  or  oil. 

The  vegetable  food  which  affords  a  means  of  subsistence, 


PREPARATION   OF  FOOD.  447 

with  or  without  animal  food,  includes  wild  plants,  roots, 
fruits,  and  berries. 

But  the  appetite  of  savage  man  is  not  confined  to  animal 
or  vegetable  food,  nor  to  both  in  various  combinations.  He 
also  eats  dirt,  clay  or  mud,  as  well  as  matters  infinitely  more 
offensive.  He  may  be  said,  indeed,  to  eat  anything,  to  be 
omnivorous  (Houzeau).  The  subject,  however,  of  morbid 
appetite  in  him,  as  in  other  animals,  is  so  extensive  as  to 
require  separate  treatment. 

Many  human  savage  races  live,  as  other  animals  do,  by 
hunting  and  fishing,  by  grubbing  up  roots,  or  gathering 
fruits.  Some  of  them  eat  lice,  as  monkeys  do  (Houzeau). 
'  Until  the  arrival  of  Europeans  the  Australians  knew  nothing 
about  cooking  or  boiling  food'  (Biichner).  Carrion-eating 
is  common  among  the  Zulus  (Colenso).  The  Bushmen  of 
Southern  Africa  live  partly  upon  'small  birds,  which  they 
swallow  unplucked.'  Lizards  are  eaten  raw  by  the  Digger 
Indians,  ( with  no  other  preparation  than  pulling  out  the 
tails ; '  and  they  also  eat  '  dead  horses,  till  nothing  is  left  but 
the  bones,'  as  well  as  other  forms  of  putrid  or  mouldy  meat. 
Part  of  the  food  of  the  Apache  Indians  consists  of  stolen 
horses  and  asses.  '  The  beasts  are  not  slaughtered,  but  torn 
asunder.'  There  is  no  cooking  of  any  kind  among  the 
Dokos  and  Mincopies,  the  food  being  eaten  raw  (Biichner). 

The  Hamram  Arab  in  Abyssinia,  as  was  long  since 
pointed  out  by  Bruce,  and  as  has  recently  been  confirmed  by 
Baker,  cuts  and  eats  steaks  from  live  oxen.  The  Yeddas  of 
Ceylon,  according  to  Hartshorne,  live  on  wild  honey,  lizards, 
and  the  flesh  of  monkeys,  deer,  and  boars.  The  wild  men  of 
the  Tinnivelly  ghats,  too,  c  feed  chiefly  upon  roots  and 
honey.'  l 

Wild  men  and  beast  children — including,  for  instance,  the 
wolf  children  of  India — usually  show  these  theroid  propensi- 
ties in  regard  to  food-capture  and  use  even  in  a  more  marked 
degree  or  form.  They  tear  and  eat  raw  flesh,  gather  and 
gnaw  bones  like  dogs,  catch  and  swallow  flies,  bite  the  heads 
off  live  fowls,  lap  water  with  their  tongues.  Of  one  of  them 
Gerhardt  says,  '  He  drank  like  a  dog,  and  liked  a  bone  and 
1  '  Academy,  May  1875. 


448  PREPARATION  OF  FOOD. 

raw  meat  better  than  anything  else.  .  .  .  His  civilisation 
has  progressed  so  far  that  he  likes  raw  meat  less,  though  he 
will  still  pick  up  bones  and  sharpen  his  teeth  on  them.'  Of 
others  he  remarks,  e  Before  they  eat  or  taste  food  they  smell 
it,  and  when  they  don't  like  the  smell  they  throw  it  away.' 
A  boy  found  in  company  with  a  female  wolf  and  her  cubs 
1  rejected  cooked  meat  with  disgust,  but  delighted  in  raw 
flesh  and  bones,  putting  them  out  on  the  ground  under  his 
paws  like  a  dog,'  according  to  Colonel  Sleeman.  Of  the 
same  boy  Professor  Max  Muller  says,  somewhat  contradic- 
torily of  the  above  assertion  as  to  cooked  meat,  *  The  wolf 
child  could  devour  anything,  but  preferred  raw  meat.  He 
even  ate  half  a  lamb  without  any  effort.'  Even  '  a  quilt 
stuffed  with  cotton,  given  to  him  in  cold  weather,  was  torn  by 
him  and  partly  swallowed ' — a  kind  of  indiscriminate  appe- 
tite and  depraved  taste  that  is  frequently  paralleled  among 
the  human  insane  in  British  and  other  lunatic  asylums. 
Another  wolf  child  '  would  eat  nothing  but  raw  flesh.' 

Similar  bestial,  feral,  or  animal  appetites  are  likewise  to 
be  met  with  in  the  human  idiot  and  lunatic,  as  well  as  in 
criminals,  and  in  others  of  the  degraded  classes  of  civilised 
human  society.  An  idiot  described  by  Professor  Cesare 
Lombroso  *  smells  food  before  eating,'  as  a  dog  would.  I 
have  myself  had  not  a  few  patients  who  lived  in  great  mea- 
sure on  grass,  or  the  leaves  of  various  trees  or  shrubs,  or 
who  would  eat  all  manner  of  garbage  or  any  kind  of  indi- 
gestible metallic  substance.  Dr.  Browne,  too,  gives  many 
instances  of  the  use  by  the  insane  of  raw  flesh,  of  half-dead 
leeches,  and  of  living  kittens,  rats,  mice,  frogs,  beetles,  worms, 
spiders,  and  caterpillars.  But  all  such  cases  belong  to  the 
important  category  of  morbid  appetite  in  man,  and  cannot  be 
discussed  or  described  here. 

Even  among  men  who  are  neither  idiotic,  insane, 
criminal,  nor  illiterate,  who  represent,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
highest  intelligence  and  refinement  of  the  age — in  the 
armies  of  the  foremost  nations  of  the  world — the  carnivorous 
thirst  for  blood  during  war  or  battle,  may  be  regarded  as  an 
illustration  of  the  difficulty  of  concealing  or  overcoming 
man's  natural  bestial  appetites.  But  we  need  not  go  far  afield, 


PREPARATION   OF  FOOD.  449 

nor  to  the  exceptional  conditions  of  war,  for  instances  of  the 
same  thing.  The  nose-biting  of  the  Hanley  dog-fighters  of 
Staffordshire,  and  of  their  representatives  in  other  English 
counties  or  cities,  shows  how  little  civilisation  has  yet  done 
to  humanise  certain  beast  or  brute  men  in  our  very  midst. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  certain  animals  that, 
though  they  do  not  cook  food — that  is,  prepare  it  directly 
or  indirectly  by  means  of  fire — nevertheless  subject  it  to 
some  rough  sort  of  preparation  prior  to  using  it.  Thus  the 
American  procyon  washes  its  food ;  the  elephant  frees  from 
insects  and  dust  the  branches  it  purposes  to  eat;  the 
sacred  monkeys  of  India  destroy  the  fangs  of  venomous 
snakes  before  eating  them  (Houzeau)  ;  the  common  seal 
holds  its  food  (e.g.  a  ballan  wrasse — a  fish)  in  its  fore  paws, 
carefully  denuding  it  of  its  skin  before  devouring  it  (Mcln- 
tosh). 

Again,  there  are  many  animals  that  make  free  use  of 
foods  cooked  by  man,  while  a  few  assist  him  in  the  art  of 
cooking,  including  the  tendance  of  ovens,  the  turning  of 
spits,  and  the  regulation  of  fires.  Thus  a  Borneo  orang, 
according  to  Buffon,  ate  meat  and  fish,  boiled  and  roasted. 

Among  the  animals  that  imitate  man  in  the  use  of  boiled, 
broiled,  baked,  or  roasted  meats  or  other  foods,  and  of  hot 
drinks,  are  the  dog,  lori,  chimpanzee,  and  bear.  Sometimes 
they  acquire  a  partiality  or  preference  for  cooked  foods,  and 
they  use  them  even  when  hot  from  the  oven  or  fire,  or  while 
in  the  oven,  on  the  fire,  or  t  on  the  boil.' 

Thus  the  bear  has  been  known  to  snatch  and  eat  directly 
from  a  fire  meat  that  was,  or  was  being,  cooked,  distribut- 
ing portions  to  her  cubs  (Houzeau).  ^ome  of  the  anthropoid 
apes,  moreover,  use  the  same  prepared  food  or  drink  in  the 
same  way  as  man.  Thus  the  siamang  waits  for  the  cooling 
of  his  tea  or  coffee — more  probably  a  lesson  taught  by  expe- 
rience than  the  simple  result  of  imitation.  The  orang  also 
uses  tea,  sugar,  and  milk  in  proper  proportions,  adds  the 
milk  and  sugar  herself,  and  drinks  the  tea  as  her  master 
does,  allowing  it  to  cool  sufficiently  (Cassell). 

Young  salmon  are  systematically  fed  on  fried  liver  or 
steak,  powdered,  at  the  Stormontfield  breeding  ponds,  on 


450  PREPAEATION   OF  FOOD. 

the  Taj,  near  Perth,  as  they  were  also  in  the  New  Zealand 
acclimatisation  experiments  between  1867  and  1872. 

The  anthropoid  apes  both  light  or  make  up  and  tend 
fires,  and  they  cook  food  thereon  or  thereby  just  as  man  does — 
in  short,  exactly  imitating  all  his  operations.  Thus  on  ship- 
board they  *  light  a  fire  and  cook  food  thereon.  .  .  .  De 
Grandpre  tells  us  of  a  chimpanzee  that  heated  the  oven, 
let  no  coals  fall,  and  summoned  the  baker  when  the  oven 
was  heated '  (Buchner). 


CHAPTEE    XXVII. 

FACULTY    OP    NUMEBATION. 

AMONG  the  many  marks  of  low  intelligence,  or  of  stupidity,  in 
savage  man  that  have  struck  travellers,  has  been  their  defec- 
tive knowledge  of  number,  their  want  of  arithmetical  power 
(Wallace).  Indeed,  in  a  sense  it  may  be  said  that  certain 
savages  have  no  proper  arithmetical  knowledge,  power  of 
mental  arithmetic  or  of  arithmetical  calculation — of  any  kind. 
They  can  scarcely  be  said  to  possess  either  the  '  science  of 
numbers '  or  the  '  art  of  reckoning  by  numbers,'  unless  in  a 
very  limited  sense  and  in  a  very  rudimentary  degree.  Thus 
the  Veddas  of  Ceylon  are  described  by  Hartshorn  e  as  *  quite 

unable  to  count They  cannot  count  even  by  the  aid 

of  their  fingers,  having  no  conception  of  number.' l 

Among  the  Amazon  Indians  there  are  no  words  for  num- 
bers, and  there  is  a  similar  want  of  arithmetical  power — 
ignorance  of  arithmetic,  the  most  limited  ideas  of  numbers — 
among  the  Eskimo  and  the  Australian  blacks  (Houzeau). 
Even  at  the  present  day  many  savage  tribes  of  Brazil  and 
Australia  cannot  count  beyond  two  or  four.  '  They  have  not 
carried  their  numerals  beyond  three  or  four,  and  can  only  in- 
dicate higher  numbers  by  gestures.  Oldfield  even  describes 
a  tribe  who  count  no  further  than  the  number  two,  and  de- 
signate all  beyond  by  a  word  signifying  "  many."'  A  mem- 
ber of  this  tribe,  after  several  vain  attempts — by  enumerating 
the  names  of  the  individuals — to  give  an  idea  of  the  number 
of  men  killed  in  a  certain  native  battle,  *  ended  by  raising  one 
hand  three  times  in  succession,  by  which  he  wished  it  to 
be  understood  that  the  number  amounted  to  fifteen.'  The 
1  '  Scotsman '  and  '  Daily  Telegraph,'  August  30,  1875. 


452  FACULTY  OF  NUMEKATION. 

aborigines  of  New  Caledonia  '  can  with  difficulty  count  the 
lowest  numbers.'  So  that  counting,  arithmetic,  or  an  arith- 
metical sense — ideas  or  notions  of  number — are  certainly 
not  innate  in  man  (Biichner).  The  faculty  of  calculating 
numbers  is  gradually  developed  in  him,  like  so  many  other  of 
his  acquirements,  by  education  or  cultivation. 

Certain  of  the  lower  animals  possess  a  power  of  counting 
or  calculating  numbers  comparable,  at  least,  with  that  which 
characterises  the  savage  races  of  men  above  specified.  Thus, 
in  Scotland,  the  shepherd's  dog  must  estimate  exactly  the 
number  of  sheep  under  his  charge.  One  is  mentioned,  for 
instance,  that,  during  the  process  of  sheep-washing,  brought 
to  the  washing  troughs,  and  without  instruction,  a  series  of 
detachments  of  ten  sheep  at  a  time,  running  off  for  a  fresh 
detachment  whenever  he  saw  three  only  left  in  the  pen 
('  Land  and  Water  '). 

In  North  Wales  '  a  shepherd  will  order  one  of  his  dogs  to 
fetch  three  sheep  out  of  a  flock  on  a  hill  some  distance  away, 
and  the  dog  will  faithfully  drive  the  required  number '  to  its 
master — a  circumstance,  it  is  added,  '  commonplace  enough 
to  sheep-breeders.' l  The  collie,  sent  to  collect  a  flock  or 
flocks  from  many  square  miles  of  hill  pasture,  must  know 
their  number  when  he  brings  all  together  without  a  single 
omission ;  and  a  knowledge  of  the  number  of  sheep  in  a 
flock  must  have  been  possessed  also  by  certain  sheep-steal- 
ing dogs  (' Percy  Anecdotes').  Again,  the  sporting  dog 
notices  correctly  the  number  of  birds  that  drop  to  the  rifle  of 
its  master  (Nichols).  Thus  Mr.  Berkeley's  '  Wolf '  went 
back,  unbidden,  at  the  end  of  a  day's  sport  for  a  wounded 
pheasant  shot  in  an  early  part  of  the  day.  Dogs  also  count 
correctly  the  number  of  railway  stations  that  'have  been 
passed,  or  of  the  stoppages  that  have  been  made,  in  a  given 
journey  (Nichols).  The  performing  dog  Minos,  that  was 
exhibited  in  London  in  1875,  was  said  to  display  *  thorough 
efficiency  in  the  first  four  rules  of  arithmetic — addition,  sub- 
traction, multiplication,  and  division.' 

*  A  mouse  from  whom  nine  young  ones  had  been  taken 
came  nine  times  to  fetch  them  back  one  by  one,  and  then  no 
more,  although  she  had  not  been  able  to  look  into  the  cap  in 

1  '  Graphic,'  December  5,  1874,  p.  538. 


FACULTY  OF  NUMEEATION.  453 

which  they  were  imprisoned.  The  magpie  can  count  to  four, 
but  no  further.  If  four  hunters  hide  themselves  before  her 
eyes,  and  three  of  them  go  away,  she  knows  that  one  is 
still  there,  and  is  on  her  guard.  But  if  ....  there  are  five 
....  and  four  go  away,  she  thinks  that  all  are  gone,  and 
becomes  careless'  (Buchner).  Such  assertions, however,  require 
confirmation.  Meanwhile  they  furnish  useful  hints  for  man's 
experiments.  Bees  destroy  excess  of  eggs  laid  by  the  queen 
(Figuier).  Apes  attack  a  solitary  man,  or  one  or  two  men 
together,  but  do  not  venture  to  approach  a  large  party 
(Munzinger) ;  and  there  are  probably  many  other  animals 
that,  in  war  or  otherwise,  correctly  estimate  the  numerical 
force  or  strength  of  the  adversary,  and  act  accordingly. 

Instances  of  calculation  of  numbers  have  been  given  in 
the  carrion  crow  or  other  crows  ('  Percy  Anecdotes  ').  Hou- 
zeau,  Leroy,  Combe,  Vimont,  and  other  authors  think  it 
indubitable  that  the  horse  and  mule,  as  well  as  the  dog, 
crow,  and  magpie,  or  other  animals,  possess  notions  or 
appreciation  of  number  up  to  a  certain  point — limited,  but 
still  decided.  Watson  speaks — and  I  doubt  not  correctly — 
of  the  dog  and  other  animals  being  puzzled,  or  having  puz- 
zles, in  their  mental  arithmetic. 

Wallace  comments  on  the  difficulty  of  proof  in  the  various 
experiments  that  have  been  made  to  determine  the  point 
whether  animals  can  estimate  numbers.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  further  experiment  is  desirable,  in  so  far  as  it 
cannot  be  said  that  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  knowledge 
of  numbers  possessed  by  various  animals  are  yet  thoroughly 
understood,  or  have  been  satisfactorily  demonstrated.  There 
may  be  a  perception  of  number  in  the  case  of  dogs  that  can 
distinguish  playing  cards  (Low).  The  proper  management 
of  sheep  by  the  collie  apparently  implies  a  knowledge  of 
numbers  (Watson).  There  is  probably  some  estimate  of 
numbers,  and  of  their  united  power,  in  the  deer  at  bay  in 
presence  of  a  pack  of  hounds  (Low).  Dogs  that  travel  by 
railway,  and  get  out  at  the  proper  stations,  probably  count 
the  number  of  previous  stoppages,  though  no  doubt  they  may 
also,  or  rather,  have  been  guided  by  their  observation  of  the 
persons  or  things  to  be  met  with  at  a  particular  station,  and 
not  at  certain  others. 


CHAPTEE  XXVIII. 

POWER   OP   CALCULATION. 

THAT  many  animals  possess  a  wonderfully  correct  knowledge 
of  time  and  its  flight,  and  that  they  act  appropriately  upon 
that  knowledge,  cannot  be  doubted.  What  is  the  nature  of 
their  knowledge,  or  how  acquired,  is  not  so  apparent.  Some 
authors  speak  of  their  ability  to  count,  reckon,  measure,  or 
calculate  time,  or  its  intervals  or  lapse  (Watson,  Broderip, 
Jesse,  Low,  Combe).  Dr.  Carpenter,  for  instance,  speaks  of 
1  that  remarkable  power  of  measuring  time  which  many  ani- 
mals certainly  possess  ; '  but  whether  they  really  do  so  can- 
not, perhaps,  at  present  be  determined.  Many  animals, 
however,  have — 

1.  Stated  or  fixed  times  for  work,  play,  or  meals  (White). 

2.  Our  domestic  animals  have  regular  hours  for  going  to 
bed,  getting  up,  or  going  for  water  (Houzeau). 

3.  Milch  cows  have  their  fixed  hours  for  their  midday 
milking  and  their  evening  rest,  and  they  know  when  they 
may  expect  escape  from  their  byres  in  the  morning. 

4.  Many  birds,  dogs,  cats,  and  other  animals  know — to  a 
minute  almost — man's  meal  hours. 

5.  Many  dogs  distinguish  Sunday  from  all  other  days  in 
the  week,  as  well  as  holidays,  market  days,  fair  days,  from 
the  other  days  of  a  month  or  season. 

The  knowledge  of  time  manifested  in  these  different  cases, 
and  by  a  great  variety  of  animals,  obviously  differs  much  in 
its  character.  Authors  have  variously  and  vaguely  spoken, 
for  instance,  of  animals  possessing — 

1.  A  knowledge  or  recognition  of  the  progress  or  passage 
of  time,  a  consciousness  of  its  lapse. 


POWER  OF  CALCULATION.  455 

2.  A  power  of  measurement  of  intervals — of  minutes, 
hours,  days,  or  weeks. 

3.  A  keen  observation  of  hours,  days,  and  seasons  ;  of  the 
progress  of  the  sun,  of  the  sequence  of  light  and  darkness. 

4.  Notions  or  ideas  of  time  or  duration. 

5.  Precision  in  marking  time. 

6.  Distinction   of    time   by    observation    and    inference 
(Watson). 

7.  Appreciation  of  such  natural  phenomena  as  dawn,  noon, 
and  sunset. 

8.  Observation  of  man's  movements  and  of  the  circum- 
stances or  things  that  mark  certain  hours  of  the  day  and 
days  of  the  week — in  short,  of  concomitant  phenomena. 

9.  A  sense  of  periodicity,  which  gives  rise  to  punctuality 
or  regularity. 

10.  Knowledge  of  the  succession  of  events,  the  possession 
of  what  phrenologists  call  the  faculty  of  eventuality. 

Some  of  these  explanations  or  suggestions  are  satisfactory 
in  certain  cases,  others  are  plausible,  while  others  again  are 
problematical  and  destitute  of  any  sort  of  proper  proof.  On 
the  whole,  it  must  be  confessed  that  our  knowledge  of  the 
various  modes  by  which  animals  acquaint  themselves  with 
hours  and  days  is  far  from  being  complete  or  satisfactory. 
Hence  it  offers  an  excellent  and  interesting  field  for  experi- 
mental enquiry. 

We  are,  however,  in  possession  of  a  large  body  of  facts 
showing  that  animals  have  a  certain  knowledge  of  time,  and 
it  is  desirable  that  illustrations  should  be  given  of  the  various 
kinds  of  their  time-knowledge — with  the  modes  in  which  they 
display  it.  Nor  is  it  irrelevant,  in  the  present  state  of  our 
information  on  the  subject,  to  consider  some  of  the  suggested 
explanations  that  offer  themselves,  or  that  have  been  offered. 

One  of  the  commonest  kinds  of  time-knowledge  exhibited 
by  the  lower  animals — the  kind  which  most  strikes  man — is 
that  which  relates  to  the  hours  of  the  day,  especially  to  man's 
meal  hours.  Various  tame,  or  even  sometimes  wild,  animals 
come  to  be  fed  at  the  meal  hours  of  a  family,  and  they  make 
no  mistake  as  to  these  hours.  I  have  several  times  noticed 
this  myself  in  the  case,  for  instance,  of  the  common  sparrow, 


456  POWER  OF   CALCULATION. 

blackbirds,  and  starlings,  the  pensioners  of  a  certain  Lady 
Bountiful  in  one  of  the  western  suburbs  of  Edinburgh. 

These  birds  came  for  years,  and  still  come,  all  the  year 
round,  to  be  fed  at  a  certain  time — eight  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing— their  meal  consisting  of  bread-crumbs  from  the  break- 
fast table.  They  hover  on  neighbouring  trees  and  bushes,  in 
the  garden  of  the  house,  about  the  proper  hour,  and  wait 
patiently  till  they  see  or  hear  a  certain  window  opened  and 
their  bountiful  provider  appears  with  a  plateful  of  bread- 
crumbs prepared  for  being  thrown  out.  Then  they  alight 
on  the  grass,  and  are  as  ready  for  their  work  as  a  crowd  of 
city  boys  would  be  to  scramble  for  a  handful  of  coppers  cast 
among  them.  After  picking  up  the  fragments  the  birds  dis- 
perse, not  to  reappear,  at  least  in  a  body,  till  next  morning. 
How  or  why  they  come  to  congregate  in  the  proper  place 
at  the  proper  time  I  am  not  prepared  to  explain.  They  may 
be  guided  simply  by  observation  of  the  signs  that  indicate 
the  approach  of  breakfast — the  opening  of  shutters,  the 
movement  of  servants,  the  sounds  of  breakfast  trays  and 
crockery,  and  the  law  of  association  of  ideas,  which  is  as 
operative  in  them  as  in  man,  probably  connects  these  phe- 
nomena of  morning  life  in  the  household  with  that  which 
invariably  forms  a  part  of  the  phenomena — though  a  subse- 
quent part — their  own  breakfast.  There  is  unquestionably 
both  observation  and  inference  in  their  action  when  a  cer- 
tain window  is  opened  and  a  certain  lady  appears  at  it  with 
her  bread-platter. 

A  correspondent  of  \  Science  Gossip '  says  of  a  tame 
sparrow,  '  With  the  time  of  the  meals  it  is  perfectly  ac- 
quainted, and  does  not  fail  at  breakfast,  dinner,  and  tea  to 
announce  its  presence  by  knocking  with  its  beak  at  the 
window  until  it  is  opened  for  its  entry/  Dr.  Carpenter  is 
responsible  for  a  story  about  certain  sparrows  that  frequented 
a  young  ladies'  boarding  school  at  Bristol,  and  that  knew 
twelve  o'clock  on  week  days — the  hour  and  days  on  which 
the  girls  ate  their  luncheon  in  the  play- ground,  the  dropped 
crumbs  from  which  luncheon  became  the  food  of  the  birds. 
They  gathered  on  the  garden  walls  a  little  before  twelve,  and 
waited  till  the  playground  was  empty  of  girls,  when  their 


POWER  OF  CALCULATION.  457 

own  feast  began.  This  incident  contrasts  with  the  other, 
first  mentioned,  of  the  sparrows  and  other  birds  that  were 
candidates  for  the  morning  charity  of  a  lady  in  Edinburgh. 
In  the  latter  case  the  pensioners,  who  were  as  regularly  ex- 
pected and  provided  for  as  various  human  pensioners  by  the 
same  benevolent  heart,  showed  their  confidence  in  her,  their 
absence  of  fear,  by  feeding  in  her  presence. 

Ducks,  dogs,  donkeys,  and  many  other  animals  are  simi- 
larly regular  or  punctual  in  their  attendance  at  man's  dinner 
hour. 

Macaulay  mentions  a  Newfoundland  dog  that  visited  a 
baker  every  morning,  save  Sunday,  as  the  clock  struck  eight. 
One  of  the  commonest  tricks  which  the  dog  is  taught  is  to 
call  (or  awake)  its  master  at  a  fixed  hour  in  the  morning. 

The  mules  employed  in  loading  and  unloading  vessels  on 
the  quays  of  New  Orleans  know  the  duration  of  their  work — 
the  length  of  time,  the  number  of  hours,  during  which  they 
are  called  upon  to  labour — neighing  to  their  masters  as  a 
signal  when  it  is  time  to  be  unyoked  (Houzeau). 

A  London  barrister — one  of  the  staff  of  a  well-known 
provincial  newspaper — told  me  of  a  certain  cat  of  his  that 
used  to  meet  him  regularly  at  a  certain  hour  on  a  certain 
road,  on  his  way  home  from  office.  In  such  a  case  as  this  it 
is  difficult  to  resist  the  conclusion  that  it  must  have  had  some 
means  of  reckoning  time.  Wild  dogs  in  Peru  meet  at  certain 
hours,  at  certain  places,  for  certain  purposes  (Pierquin).  The 
tame  orang  has,  or  gets  into,  regular  hours  for  going  to  bed 
at  night  and  rising  therefrom  in  the  morning  (Houzeau). 
Blind  beggars'  dogs  visit  church-doors  at  the  proper  hours 
(Low). 

It  has  been  alleged  by  Houzeau — with  what  degree  of 
truth  does  not  quite  appear — that  certain  hours  are  observed 
by  the  cock  in  its  crow,  whether  it  be  light  or  dark — in  other 
words,  that  unnatural  and  artificial  continuity  of  light  or 
darkness  does  not  affect  its  periodicity  of  work  and  rest. 
Statements,  however,  of  an  opposite  kind  have  been  made, 
and  are  much  more  probably  true.  It  has  been  abundantly 
proved,  indeed,  that  artificial  light  and  darkness  produce 
certain  curious  results  that  are  to  be  considered  errors  of 


458  POWER  OF  CALCULATION. 

instinct.  Various  birds  can  be  easily  deceived  by  artificial 
reversal  of  the  natural  phenomena  of  light. 

The  duration  of  a  master's  sleep  is  estimated,  and  cor- 
rectly, by  certain  sporting  dogs  and  by  some  birds,  such  as 
the  hornbill ;  and  if  he  oversleep  the  usual  time,  they  awake 
him  :  thus  the  tame  hornbill  awakes  its  master  for  breakfast 
(Houzeau). 

Certain  clever,  trained  dogs  have  been  described  as 
having  a  knowledge  of  the  hours  on  the  watch  or  clock — as 
being  able  to  indicate  the  hour  by  reading  the  dial  of  either 
or  both  (Watson).  But  there  is  obviously  no  necessary  con- 
nection between  such  a  feat  and  that  calculation  of  time — 
whatever  be  its  nature — by  which  so  many  of  the  operations 
of  domestic  animals  are  regulated. 

There  is  at  present  no  evidence  to  show  whether  the  dog 
or  other  animals  can  count  in  any  way,  or  otherwise  distin- 
guish, the  different  hours  struck  by  a  clock,  which  would 
involve  the  faculty  of  numeration. 

Without  rigidly  observing  certain  hours,  there  are  various 
animals  that  do  certain  things  in  the  morning,  at  noon,  and 
in  the  evening,  at  dawn  or  sunrise,  and  at  sunset  or  the 
approach  of  night.  Wherever  dairy  cows  go  to  and  from  pas- 
ture in  summer,  they  may  be  observed  gathering  themselves 
spontaneously  at  sundown  at  or  near  the  gate  of  their  pad- 
dock, waiting  to  be  let  out  in  order  to  go  to  their  byres  for 
the  night.  I  have  seen  this  over  and  over  again  myself — in- 
deed, sometimes  daily  during  the  summer  months. 

Equally  noticeable  and  notorious  is  the  noon  exodus  of 
dairy  cows  from  a  certain  town  common  in  my  own  neigh- 
bourhood. The  animals  do  not  require  to  be  collected  or 
called ;  they  collect  themselves  at  the  proper  time  and  find 
their  own  way  home.  In  both  these  cases — of  noon  and 
sunset  migrations — the  animals  may  be  guided  by  the  light 
or  heat  proceeding  from,  or  by  the  position  of,  the  sun — 
when  there  is  a  visible  sun  to  guide  them.  But  this  expla- 
nation scarcely  suffices,  considering  that  (1)  the  habit  is  a 
daily  one,  not  determined  by  or  depending  upon  sunshine ; 
(2)  in  so  murky,  changeable,  pluvious  a  climate  as  that  of 
Scotland  brilliant  sunshine  is  not  a  common  phenomenon 


POWER  OF   CALCULATION.  459 

even  during  summer ;  while  (3)  there  are  other  possible  ex- 
planations— in  the  observance,  for  instance,  of  circumstances 
that  mark  the  proper  times  for  going  to  or  returning  from 
grass. 

A  hedgehog  on  board  ship  crept  into  its  box  '  at  dawn 
and  came  out  at  dusk '  (Mrs.  Mackellar).  Here  there 
seemed  to  be  a  direct  connection  between  its  behaviour  and 
daylight.  Houzeau  mentions  a  hen  that,  with  her  chickens, 
crossed  a  stream  twice  a  day — morning  and  evening — to 
reach  a  certain  feeding  ground. 

Periodicity  of  action,  and  the  estimation  of  time,  are  not 
confined,  however,  to  the  observance  of  certain  hours,  or  of 
morning,  noon,  and  evening,  or  of  given  days  in  the  week.  Of 
a  certain  foxhound  Baker  writes,  ( I  am  convinced  that  he 
knew  the  date  of  a  track  from  its  appearance ' — that  he  could 
determine  its  age.  The  ladajac  reaps  its  grain  and  dries  its 
grain  stores  at  the  proper  time  (Houzeau).  Butchers',  bakers', 
and  newsmongers'  dogs  and  horses  pay  periodical  visits  to 
the  residences  of  their  masters'  customers,  without  direction 
(Watson). 

Many  dogs  especially  have  been  described  as  knowing 
the  days  of  the  week.  But  such  cases  almost  invariably 
resolve  themselves  into  a  distinction  of  Sunday  from  other 
week-days,  and  occasionally  of  Saturday  as  a  precursor  of 
Sunday.  That  these  days  are  regarded  as  the  first, 
or  sixth  or  seventh  of  each  week  there  is  no  ground 
for  believing ;  but  the  dog  has  no  difficulty  in  recog- 
nising Sunday  at  least  as  a  holiday,  marked  by  certain 
things  that  man  does  and  does  not  do.  It  is  keenly 
observant  of  the  cessation  from  ordinary  work,  of  the  house- 
hold hush  of  the  Day  of  Eest,  of  the  church-going  and 
all  it  implies — such  as  its  having  to  keep  the  house.  To  it 
the  day  is  what  it  is  to  so  many  children — a  pre-eminently 
dull  day  in  Scotland,  where  it  does  not  get  its  usual  walk  or 
run,  and  does  not,  unless  in  pastoral  districts — as  explained 
in  another  chapter — accompany  its  master. 

A  dog  belonging  to  a  certain  grocer  in  Edinburgh 
accompanies  him  regularly  in  his  week-day  walks,  but  never 
attempts  to  go  out  with  him  on  Sundays.  The  church  bells, 


460  POWER  OF  CALCULATION. 

the  not  going  to  shop,  its  master's  change  of  dress,  the 
later  hours  of  rising  and  breakfast,  the  greater  quiet  of 
house  and  streets,  all  guide  it  probably  in  distinguishing 
the  Sabbath  from  other  days  of  the  week.  The  raven  in 
Shetland  does  more  harm  on  Sunday  than  on  other  days, 
because  the  human  inhabitants  are  regular  church-goers, 
and  the  birds  know  that  almost  nobody  is  left  behind  to 
hinder  their  depredations  (Saxby). 

Eooks  and  crows  show  similar  fearlessness,  security,  or 
boldness  on  Sundays  (Watson).  Macaulay  mentions  a  dog 
that  visited  a  baker  every  morning  save  Sunday ;  on  that  day 
it  never  made  the  attempt;  and  Dr.  Carpenter  tells  us  of 
sparrows  that  made  a  similar  omission  in  their  otherwise 
daily  visits  to  the  playground  of  a  Bristol  boarding  school, 
the  pupils  of  which  had  early  lunch  indoors  on  Sundays.  In 
both  cases  the  obvious  cause  of  the  omission  was  the  same — 
the  knowledge  that  on  Sundays  nothing  was  to  be  had  to 
repay  a  visit,  the  baker's  shop  being  closed  in  the  one  case 
and  there  being  no  bread-crumbs  in  the  playground  in  the 
other. 

The  dog  is  liable  to  commit  error  as  to  particular  days 
of  the  same  kind  that  man  makes  under  the  same  cir- 
cumstances. Thus  it  commits  a  very  pardonable  mistake 
when  it  confounds  fast  days  in  Scotland  with  Sundays 
(Watson),  inasmuch  as  children,  and  even  adult  men,  are  con- 
stantly doing  the  same. 

Several  instances  have  been  recorded  of  dogs  secreting 
themselves  on  Saturday,  so  as  to  avoid  being  tied  up  on  Sun- 
day ;  and  in  such  cases  they  may  arrive  at  their  knowledge 
of  Saturday  from  their  observation  of  the  same  kinds  of  signs 
that  mark  off  Sunday  from  other  days  in  the  week.  Satur- 
day, in  this  country  at  least,  is  usually  a  half-holiday, 
marked  by  cessation  from  ordinary  work  and  by  engage- 
ment in  various  forms  of  recreation  or  of  preparation  for  the 
Sabbath. 

Dr.  Carpenter  mentions  a  dog  keeping  out  of  the  way 
on  the  days — once  a  fortnight — on  which  it  was  accustomed 
to  be  washed — an  operation  it  specially  disliked.  Here  again 
it  may  have  learned  the  washing  days  not  by  counting  every 


POWER   OF  CALCULATION.  461 

fourteenth  day,  but  simply  by  observing  the  earliest  prepa- 
rations for  its  bath.  Its  periodicity  of  action  may  have  been 
determined  simply  by  periodicity  of  action  in  its  master  or 
mistress. 

Dogs  distinguish  certain  other  days  of  a  season  such  as 
Christmas,  assize  or  cattle-killing  days,  hunting  days  (ap- 
pointed for  the  *  meets'  of  hounds),  and  in  general  all  holi- 
days or  other  days  marked  by  unusual  events — by  any  depar- 
ture from  the  routine  of  daily  life.  In  all  these  cases  they 
probably  observe  man's  preparations  for  the  business  or 
sports  of  the  day,  more  especially  perhaps  his  change  of  dress. 
They  readily  distinguish  Sunday  clothes  from  a  hunting  cos- 
tume, and  both  from  the  ordinary  working  day  habiliments: 
they  quite  understand  the  object  of  such  changes  of  dress, 
and  their  association  of  ideas  enables  them  to  connect  even- 
ing in-door  full  dress  with  balls  or  parties,  or  the  scarlet  coat 
and  top-boots  with  the  hunt,  as  well  as  with  the  fact  that, 
when  dressed  in  a  particular  way,  and  when  going  to  a  par- 
ticular place,  they  may,  or  must  not  accompany  their  masters. 
Their  behaviour  is  in  accordance  with  their  logical  inferences 
from  observation :  they  exhibit  indifference  or  sulkiness  in 
one  case,  joy,  friskiness,  vivacity  in  the  other. 

The  power  of  the  dog,  horse,  mule,  donkey,  elephant  and 
other  animals  to  count  or  reckon,  in  some  way,  intervals  of 
time,  and  the  exactness  of  their  reckoning  are  illustrated 
in  many  other  ways  :  for  instance,  by  their  punctuality  and 
regularity  in  betaking  themselves  to,  and  relieving  each  other 
from,  duty — in  taking  turn  and  turn  about  at  work. 

In  various  ways,  certain  animals  show  that  they  can 
correctly  calculate  or  estimate  space  or  distance,  including 
height.  The  horse,  for  instance,  in  the  steeple  chase  or 
hurdle  race,  calculates  hurriedly  the  height  of  the  fence  he  is 
about  to  leap ;  the  dog  does  the  same  when  he  is  invited  to 
jump  through  a  hoop  for  a  bit  of  bread ;  the  lion  and  other 
predatory  carnivora  estimate  both  height  and  distance  in 
their  contemplated  spring  upon  their  prey.  Certain  fish  are 
called  shooting  or  archer  fish  from  their  precision  of  aim  in 
bringing  down  flies  on  the  wing,  by  squirting  at  them  drops 
of  water,  the  nicest  calculation  of  the  intervening  space,  as 


462  POWER  OF   CALCULATION. 

well  as  of  the  size  of  their  prey,  being  involved.  They  learn 
by  experience  to  make  due  allowance  for  the  refraction  of 
light  by  water  ;  to  use  their  natural  weapon,  the  syringe,  in 
the  operation  of  squirting ;  and  to  employ  water  as  an  effec- 
tive kind  of  shot,  missile  or  projectile  (Houzeau).  But  the 
archer-fish,  in  the  precision  of  its  aim,  makes  allowance,  not 
only  for  the  refraction  of  light  and  for  distance:  not  only 
for  the  size,  but  also  for  the  movements  of  its  victims 
(Baird),  while  the  dog  and  other  animals  make  proper  al- 
lowance for  wind  and  water  currents.  The  elephant  makes 
a  similar  use  of  his  trunk  as  a  syringe  or  hydropult,  and  of 
water  as  a  projectile :  while  it  also  estimates  distance  and 
size  in  the  occasional  punishment  of  his  human  tormentors. 
Both  in  the  archer-fish  and  the  elephant,  calculation  of  dis- 
tance amounts  to,  or  involves,  an  estimation  of  the  range  of 
projectiles,  as  well  as  of  the  force  necessary  for  the  projec- 
tion of  missiles. 

Many  animals  learn  by  experience  the  average  or  maxi- 
mum range  of  man's  projectiles  or  explosives,  of  his  firearms 
and  their  contents,  especially :  and  they  have  or  acquire  the 
sense  to  keep  for  their  own  safety  beyond  range.  They  cal- 
culate this  range  with  great  nicety  in  certain  cases.  Thus 
the  dog  in  a  farrier's  smithy  will  be  found  sometimes  just  far 
enough  from  the  forge  or  furnace  to  be  beyond  danger  from 
fire  sparks,  but  yet  sufficiently  near  to  get  the  full  benefit  of 
the  grateful  heat.  The  crow  and  other  birds  dread  man 
within  rifle  range,  if  he  carries  a  rifle ;  but  are  perfectly  un- 
concerned if  they  keep  and  feel  themselves  beyond  bullet 
reach. 

A  calculation  of  range  is  implied  in  various  devices  of  the 
fox,  or  other  animals,  for  bringing  their  prey  within  captur- 
ing reach.  There  is  correct  judgment  of  distance  in  the 
feints  of  a  partridge ;  as  well  as  of  time  in  relation  to  space 
in  the  journeys  of  Texan  cattle  to  their  watering  ground. 
They  time  their  setting  out  according  to  the  distance  they 
have  to  travel  (Houzeau). 

There  is  even  a  nicer  calculation  of  time  and  space  in  the 
robbery  of  the  fish  hawk  by  the  eagle  ('Percy  Anecdotes'). 
In  the  Arctic  bear,  which  kills  the  walrus  by  rolling  down 


POWER   OF  CALCULATION.  463 

upon  it  rocks  or  stones  (Hall),  there  is  estimation  of  height 
or  distance,  as  well  as  curve,  and  perhaps  impetus  or  momen- 
tum. Walruses  themselves  e  notice  exactly  the  direction 
and  distance  of  their  enemy  (man),  and  emerge  at  the  spot  to 
meet  and  destroy  him '  (Koldewey)  ;  that  is,  they  observe  his 
exact  topographical  position,  and  calculate  how  far  they  must 
swim  under  the  ice,  so  as  to  reach  him. 

Certain  animals,  also,  form  their  own  estimates  of  weight, 
resistance,  impetus  or  momentum,  and  size.  The  elephant 
must  calculate  weight  or  resistance  in  judging  of  the  degree 
of  strength  it  must  put  forth  to  move  a  timber  log  or  other 
heavy  object :  for  in  all  such  cases  there  is  a  due  adjustment  of 
an  animal's  force,  strength  or  power,  to  the  physical  cha- 
racter of  the  object  to  be  pushed,  lifted,  carried,  or  piled. 
The  ant  probably  makes  a  similar  calculation  when,  meeting 
with  a  large,  heavy,  dead  beetle,  it  calls  in  the  aid  of  its 
fellows  to  roll,  carry,  or  push  it  to  the  nest.  The  same  ani- 
mal shows  its  knowledge  of  dimension,  of  length  and  breadth, 
of  the  smallest  diameter  of  an  object — in  the  conveyance  of 
booty,  or  in  the  dismembering  of  prey  (Houzeau,  Watson). 

Horses,  mules  and  camels  measure  or  estimate  the  size, 
as  well  as  weight,  of  their  loads,  so  as  to  judge  of  the 
possibility  of  their  passing  through  forest  openings,  gates, 
or  doors,  or  of  their  own  ability  to  bear  them  with  com- 
fort. 

Tame  working  elephants  are  in  Ceylon  employed  in  a 
considerable  variety  of  engineering  works.  In  arranging 
timber,  for  instance,  the  animal  balances  the  logs  in  its 
mouth,  steadying  them  with  its  trunk,  places  them  in  ex- 
actly parallel  rows,  or  in  superposition,  rolls  or  pushes 
them  with  its  head  or  foot,  checks  any  undue  '  way '  or 
momentum  by  its  trunk,  expresses  dissatisfaction  at  any 
irregularity,  and  readjusts  until  the  desired  position  is  at- 
tained, and  all  unaided  or  undirected  (Baker).  Such  opera- 
tions necessarily  involve  not  only  great  variety,  but  great 
nicety  of  calculations.  It  balances  water  pipes,  lays  and  fits 
them  into  each  other  (Watson) ;  it  applies  its  strength  at 
the  proper  time  and  in  the  proper  place  ('Animal  World  '). 
It  reaches  coin,  when  it  is  tethered,  by  blowing  at  a  certain 
31 


464  POWER   OF  CALCULATION. 

angle,  so  as  to  produce  a  recoil  of  its  blast  which  brings  the 
coin  within  reach  of  its  trunk. 

By  their  combined  efforts  at  mechanical  labour,  more- 
over, ants  act  upon  the  principle  of  union  or  aggregate 
strength  (Watson). 

The  use  of  counterpoise  is  seen  occasionally  in  spiders, 
for  instance  when  they  suspend  from  one  angle  of  a  web  a 
small  fragment  of  stone,  to  keep  it  on  the  proper  stretch. 
Thus  a  correspondent  of  '  Nature '  describes  one  as  having 
suspended  to  its  web  a  fragment  of  gravel  as  a  movable 
weight,  to  counteract  the  effect  of  gusts  of  wind.  The  rose- 
leaf-cutter  bee  fixes  pieces  of  rose-leaf  to  her  cell,  '  solely  by 
calculating  upon  the  natural  spring  of  the  leaf,  and  so  ad- 
apts the  pieces  that  the  middle  one  always  overlies  a  join  in 
the  others '  (Milton). 

Dogs  at  least  calculate  and  make  allowance  for  the 
rapidity  and  strength  of  currents  of  rivers  and  tides.  Thus 
Wood  describes  a  miller's  dog  that,  to  save  a  drowning  small 
one,  ran  by  the  side  of  a  certain  river  till  it  '  got  well  below 
the  drowning  dog  : '  then  it  sprang  into  the  river  and  swam 
across :  '  and  so  exactly  had  he  calculated  the  rapidity  of  the 
river,  and  his  own  speed,  that  he  intercepted  the  little  dog 
....  and  brought  it  safely  to  land.' 

The  old  mare  or  cow  forms  very  shrewd  estimates  of 
weakness  in,  discovers  the  weak  points  of,  a  fence  that  debars 
access  to  tempting  fodder  (Macaulay).  The  dog  and  other 
animals  form  estimates  both  of  their  own  strength  in  relation 
to  size  of  body,  and  that  of  their  fellows,  so  as  to  judge, 
for  instance,  how  far  they  can  cope  with  them  as  rivals  or 
enemies.  Hence  they  acquire  a  consciousness  of  great  supe- 
riority of  size  and  strength,  which  probably  leads  the  large 
powerful  dog  to  decline  fighting  with  a  small  weak  one,  a 
phenomenon  usually  attributed  to  a  display  of  magnanimity. 
They  become  aware  when  they  have  met  their  c  match ; ' 
when  honorable  and  equal  combat  may  be  the  result.  And 
in  other  cases,  they  are  convinced  of  the  futility  of  effort,  of 
the  inadequateness  of  their  strength. 

The  horse  and  other  animals  of  burden  compare  their 
own  strength,  or  physical  agility,  with  the  size,  weight  or 


POWER  OF  CALCULATION.  465 

height  of  objects  they  are  called  upon  to  surmount  or  carry. 
Hence  the  horse  refuses  an  impracticable  fence,  recognising 
its  impracticability  :  it  does  not  attempt  what  is  beyond  its 
power,  what  is  obviously  dangerous.  Its  reluctance,  in  such 
a  case,  may,  or  may  not,  be  overcome  by  the  will  and  stimuli 
of  the  rider,  the  whip,  the  spur,  the  taunt ;  or  by  the  force 
of  imitation,  the  example  of  other  horses  and  riders.  The 
animal's  own  better  judgment  may  be  made  to  give  way  to 
the  temper  and  insistance  of  its  master.  But  if,  and  when 
this  takes  place,  it  is  too  frequently  proved  by  the  issue  that 
the  horse  has  been  the  more  sensible  animal,  indeed,  the 
only  sensible  animal,  of  the  two :  though  unfortunately  it  is 
also  the  more  likely  to  suffer  for  its  rider's  stupidity  than 
the  rider  himself.  The  camel,  too,  shows  unwillingness  to 
travel  with  a  load  which  it  considers  too  large  or  heavy. 

But  the  dog  at  least  is  capable  of  estimating  not  only 
the  physical,  but  the  mental  or  moral  qualities,  both  in  his 
fellows,  and  in  man.  It  is  frequently  an  admirable  reader, 
or  interpreter,  of  human  character:  it  forms  a  wonderfully 
correct  judgment  of  man's  strong  and  weak  points ;  in  other 
words,  it  rapidly  discovers  those  weak  points  in  regard  to 
which  it  feels  itself  to  be,  for  the  moment  at  least,  man's 
superior.  In  particular  it  recognises,  and  it  must  be  added, 
it  sometimes  takes  undue  advantage  of,  such  human  quali- 
ties as  timidity  or  hesitancy,  ignorance  or  inexperience ;  just 
as  it  does  of  man's  drunkenness,  awkwardness,  incautious- 
ness. 

Nor  does  the  horse,  in  some  cases,  form  a  less  accurate 
estimate  of  certain  features  at  least  of  man's  character.  In 
their  own  fellows,  in  their  leaders  or  chiefs,  or  in  their  prey 
or  enemies,  dogs,  tigers  and  other  animals,  appreciate  such 
qualities  as  courage,  sagacity,  presence  of  mind  and  fertility 
in  resource. 

There  is  the  same  liability  to  imperfection,  or  error,  in 
the  calculations  of  other  animals  as  in  those  of  man.  Thus 
errors  in  the  calculation  of  distance  occur  frequently  in  the 
leap  of  the  predatory  carnivora  on  their  prey. 

The  Indian  cheetah,  when  it  makes  a  premature  dash  at 
the  antelope,  and  so  misses  it,  '  sneaks  ashamed  and  crest- 


466  POWER   OF   CALCULATION. 

fallen  to  the  nearest  busli  or  nullah,  and  snarls  with  sullen 
and  bitter  rage,  when  the  attendant  approaches  to  recap- 
ture and  blindfold  him.'  l 

Birds  of  prey  often  '  miss  their  mark '  in  a  similar  way. 
Thus  a  merlin,  in  pursuit  of  a  sand-piper,  missed  its  quarry, 
and  '  the  merlin  by  the  force  and  impetus  of  its  flight  plunged, 
head  over  ears,  into  the  sea,  whence,  with  draggled  plumage 
and  brine-rblinded  eyes,  it  arose  with  difficulty,'  its  intended 
victim  of  course  escaping  (Stewart).  The  supposed  uner- 
ringness  of  aim  of  the  shooting-fish  of  Java  is  as  great  a 
mistake,  on  man's  part,  as  is  his  belief  in  the  « unerring '  de- 
velopment of  animal  instinct  in  so  many  other  directions. 
Though  the  archer-fish  generally  brings  down  its  prey,  it 
does  not  do  so  always  or  necessarily.  '  If  this  fails  .... 
he  repeats  his  circuit  of  observation,  pauses,  again  apparently 
to  measure  his  distance,  and  then  discharges  at  the  fly  once 
more.'  He  uniformly  surveys  his  prey  first,  swimming  about 
so  as  to  examine  its  exact  position.2 

A  Skye  terrier  sitting  at  an  open  window  on  the  third 
storey  of  a  house,  in  one  of  the  streets  of  Edinburgh,  saw  its 
master  pass  on  the  street  below.  Its  master  very  foolishly 
beckoned  to  it ;  the  poor  animal,  literally  not  looking  before 
it  leaped,  taking  no  time  properly  to  calculate  height  or 
distance,  acting  impulsively,  ra.shly,  thoughtlessly,  without 
reflection,  jumped  downwards,  with  sufficient  force  to  clear  a 
sunk  area  in  front  of  the  house,  but  only  to  impale  itself  on 
the  railings  that  fenced  in  the  said  area  from  the  street.3  A 
due  consideration  of  the  nature  of  the  feat  it  was  about  to 
perform  would  probably  have  prevented  any  attempt  being 
made. 

There  is  miscalculation  of  the  power  of  successful  defiance, 
an  utter  disregard  or  ignorance  of  their  relative  strength, 
in  the  bravado  of  small  and  weak,  before  large  and  powerful 
animals,  even  where  the  smaller  and  less  powerful  animal 

1  '  Daily  Telegraph,'  November  19,  1875,  describing  the  Indian  Sports  of 
the  Prince  of  Wales. 

2  «  North  British  Daily  Mail,'  December  8,  1875. 
9  <  Scotsman,'  May  31,  1875. 


POWER  OF  CALCULATION.  467 

possesses  the  attribute  of  courage  ;  in  the  case,  for  instance, 
of  the  dog  braving  the  tiger  (Watson). 

In  age  and  disease,  mental  and  bodily,  there  is  frequently 
a  loss  of  the  usual  power  of  measuring  distance  or  height,  or 
of  estimating  an  animal's  own  strength,  or  other  ability, 
physical  or  mental :  the  consequence  of  which  is  self-injury 
in  various  forms  and  to  various  degrees. 


CHAPTEE  XXIX. 

COURTSHIP  AND  MAESIAGE. 

THEEE  is  a  striking  resemblance  between  courtship  and 
marriage  in  the  lower  animals  and  in  man;  almost  every 
phenomenon  in  the  latter  has  its  exact  counterpart  in  the 
former.  Mating  or  pairing  in  other  animals,  and  the  pre- 
liminary operations — including  the  peculiarities  of  what  is 
variously  spoken  of  as  the  '  season  of  love/  or  the  breeding 
season — furnish  illustrations  of  the  most  important  kind  of 
certain  of  the  mental  and  moral  qualities  of  the  lower  ani- 
mals. These  features  in  their  mental  or  moral  character 
include  more  especially 

1.  Preference  or  choice  in  the  selection  of  mates  by  the 
nubile  females. 

This,  again,  involves — 

a,i  Deliberation — the  consideration  of  the  qualifica- 
tions of  candidates. 

&.  Testing  comparative  qualifications  by  a  sort  of 
competitive  examination ;  sometimes — 

c.  Decision ;  or,  on  the  other  hand — 

d.  Indecision,  vacillation,  or  hesitancy — not  know- 

ing her  own  mind — in  the  female. 

e.  Change  of  mind  or  fickleness. 
/.  Caprice  or  whimsicalness. 

g.  The   development   of    singular,   perhaps   unac- 
countable, likes  and  dislikes. 
h.  Fastidiousness. 

2.  The  paying  and  accepting  or  refusal  of  addresses  or 
attentions  by  and  from  the  male. 

3.  The    deliberate    display   to   the    greatest    advantage 


COUETSHIP  AND  MAKEIAGE.  469 

of  personal   charms   by  the   male,  which  involves   on  his 
part — 

a.  The  study  of  effect. 

6.  Intention,  with  a  definite  end  in  view. 

c.  Effort  to  please — including  gallantry. 

d.  Knowledge  of  the  value  of— 

1.  Beauty  of  form,  colour,  or  song — 

2.  Physical  strength  and  courage. 

e.  Rivalry  or  competition,  with  its  attendant  pas- 

sions—jealousy,  anger,   pugnacity,  and  their 

results. 
/.   The  eagerness  or  ardour  of  sexual  love,  which  is 

apt  to  become  excessive  or  morbid. 
g.  The  exhibition  of  antics  and  foolery  of  various 

kinds. 
h.  Love  of  admiration  and  approbation — including 

vanity  and  dandyism. 

i.   The  estimation  or  calculation  of  advantages. 
.    On  the  part  of  the  female : — 
j.   Appreciation  of — 

1.  Physical  and  mental  excellence  ;  and  of 

2.  The  desire  to  please. 
And  on  the  part  of  both  sexes  coquetry. 

4.  The  holding  of  ceremonies  and  assemblies—  involving 
fixation  of  time  and  place. 

5.  The  modes  of  expressing  affection  or  endearment — 
especially  by  mutual  embrace  or  kissing. 

6.  The  dominance  of  a  master  passion  and  its  results — 
including  infatuation  or  fascination,  as  well  as  other  changes 
of  character  or  disposition,  temporary  or  permanent. 

7.  Constancy  and  inconstancy  in  love  and  the  conjugal 
relationship — including  the  formation,  keeping,  and  rupture 
of   engagements,    profligacy,    prostitution,    seduction    and 
desertion. 

8.  Conjugal    happiness    and    unhappiness,    with    their 
causes. 

9.  Occasional   assumption   by  the  female  of  male  pre- 
rogatives. 

The    most   noteworthy    point  in    connection   with  the 


470  COUKTSHIP  AND  MAKEIAGE. 

mating  or  pairing  of  the  lower  animals  is  the  choice  of  a 
mate  so  frequently  made — for  instance,  among  birds — by  the 
female.  This  choice  is  determined  in  some  cases,  just  as  in 
woman,  by  caprice;  it  is  impossible  to  give  any  rational 
erplanation  of  the  preference  made.  But  in  a  much  larger 
proportion  of  cases  than  in  woman  the  selection  made  is,  or 
appears  to  be,  determined  by  reasons  that  are  not  only  in- 
telligible but  commendable.  These  reasons  include,  for 
instance — 

1.  The  personal  beauty  of  the  male — the  gorgeousness  of 
his  plumage  more  especially. 

2.  The  charms  of  his  song. 

3.  His   physical   strength  and,    associated   with   it,  his 
courage,  his  ability  to  protect  and  provide  for  his  mate. 

4.  Other  physical   characters — such  as   size,  form,  and 
colour  peculiarities. 

5.  His  sagacity  and  experience,  or  other  mental  or  moral 
qualities  or  acquisitions. 

The  female  frequently  exercises  the  utmost  deliberation — 
involving  perhaps  caution — in  her  choice  of  a  mate.  She 
reviews  the  personal  advantages  of  her  male  suitors.  The 
female  bird  obviously  looks,  in  the  first  place,  for  a  congenial 
helpmate  and  protector — a  male  whom  she  can  at  once 
admire,  trust,  and  respect ;  and  it  were  well  if  womankind 
were  always  as  judicious  in  their  principle  of  selection,  where 
any  principle  is  at  all  adopted.  No  doubt  in  certain  cases 
and  senses  the  choice  of  the  female  animal  may  be  said  to 
be  determined  by  a  consideration  for  her  personal  comfort 
or  interest — in  other  words,  by  selfishness.  Nevertheless, 
whether  or  not  the  principle  of  selection  be  considered  a 
selfish  one,  its  beneficence  cannot  be  doubted :  the  results  of 
such  selections  are,  on  the  whole,  good.  It  may  happen, 
however,  as  in  woman,  that  the  excellences,  whether  mental 
or  physical,  which  the  female  animal  sees  in  her  suitor,  are 
apparent  rather  than  real;  that  she  deceives  herself,  and 
perhaps,  like  her  human  sisters,  '  marries  in  haste  and 
repents  at  leisure.'  This  is  only  tantamount,  however,  to 
saying  that  the  frequent  and  serious  errors  of  animals,  as  of 
man,  extend  to  matters  amatory  and  matrimonial. 


COURTSHIP  AND  MAKKIAGE.  471 

The  preferences  displayed  in  courtship  are  more  frequently 
or  more  generally  exhibited  by  the  female  than  the  male 
animal  (Darwin).  The  common  cock,  however,  chooses 
young  hens ;  he  shows  the  same  sort  of  natural  preference 
that  man  so  usually  does  for  fresh,  youthful  attractions.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  partiality  of  the  cock  pheasant  is  for 
old  hens  (Darwin) ;  so  that  in  the  amatory  and  matrimonial 
affairs  of  other  animals,  as  in  those  of  man,  most  fortunately 
no  doubt,  de  gustibus  nil  disputandum. 

But  deliberate  choice  or  selection  is  by  no  means  con- 
fined to  love  affairs.  It  is  constantly  shown,  and  in  a  great 
variety  of  ways,  by  the  lower  animals — quite  as  much  at 
least  by  the  males  as  the  femalgs.  Thus  it  is  shown  in  the 
following  important  particulars : — 

1.  The  preference  of  duty  to  revenge,   to  pleasure,  to 
personal  ease  or  gratification — in  other  words,  of  the  right 
to  the  wrong ;  or,  on  the  contrary  of — 

2.  The  expedient  or  politic — whether  or  not  it  is  also 
wrong — to  the  right;  of  selfish  considerations  to  self-sacri- 
ficing benevolence. 

3.  Preference  of  immediate  and  certain  death  by  suicide 
to  the  probability  of  prolonged  life  and  torture  ;  or  of  death 
to  the  desertion  of  their  young  by  mothers  ;  or  in  many  other 
cases — 

4.  Choice  of  the  lesser  of  two  evils  or  dangers. 

5.  Partiality  for  human   society — shown    by   so   many 
birds  and  other  animals. 

6.  Likings    or    dislikes    for   or   to  particular    animals, 
persons,    places,    things,    sounds,    and    colours — including 
favouritism   as   to   companions  or  playfellows,   masters   or 
mistresses,  nesting  or  building  places,  and  the  materials  of 
construction ;  especially  the 

7.  Predilections  shown  by  so  many  animals  for  particular 
foods  or  articles  thereof — for  instance,  for  those  used  by  man, 
including  cooked  foods  and  intoxicating  beverages. 

8.  Preference  of  liberty  or  freedom  to  captivity  or  con- 
finement ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  a  singular  deliberate — 

9.  Selection  of  captivity  and  its  advantages  in  preference 
to  a  wild  life  with  its  risks. 


472  COUETSHIP  AND  MARRIAGE. 

10.  Selection  of  proper  articles  by  dogs  or  otlier  animals 
that  act  as  man's  messengers  or  servants,  or  that  perform  on 
the  theatrical  stage. 

11.  Choice  of  the  best  means  for  the  accomplishment  of 
a  purpose. 

Choice,  however  decided  it  is  when  made,  may  not  be 
made  at  once.  As  in  man,  wary,  experienced  animals  feel 
or  know  that  there  are  many  things  to  be  calmly  considered 
before  their  mind  is  made  up  to  any  given  line  of  action. 
They  estimate,  calculate,  or  weigh  risk  or  danger ;  balance 
disadvantages  and  advantages  against  each  other ;  *  count  the 
cost '  of  a  proposed  procedure,  anticipating  the  results — de- 
ducing consequences  from, their  causes.  They  exercise  or 
manifest  comparison  and  reflection.  In  so  simple  a  matter 
as  the  selection  of  one  of  several  roads  the  dog,  for  instance, 
makes  unconscious  use  of  a  syllogism  (Houzeau). 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  unfortunate  animals,  as 
there  are  unlucky  men,  that  cannot  make  up  their  minds  or 
come  to  a  decision  ;  that  cannot  show  a  rational  preference, 
or  a  preference  of  any  kind,  even  in  matters  seriously  involv- 
ing their  own  personal  interests.  In  such  cases  indecision, 
the  incapability  of  making  a  distinct  choice  between  two 
courses  of  action  or  things,  or  between  action  and  inaction,  is 
apt  to  be  as  fatal  to  the  animal  as  to  the  man.  Belt,  for 
instance,  gives  the  case  of  a  mule  crossing  a  ravine  :  '  When 
it  came  near  to  a  place  where  it  could  escape  the  deep  mud 
by  going  over  a  stony  part,  it  would  slacken  its  pace  and 
look  first  at  the  mud  and  then  at  the  stones,  evidently 
balancing  in  its  mind  which  was  the  least  evil.  Sometimes 
....  it  would  be  so  undecided  which  side  was  the  best 
that,  making  towards  one,  it  would  look  towards  the  other, 
and  end  by  getting  into  the  worst  of  the  mud.  It  was  just 
like  many  men,  who  cannot  decide  which  of  two  courses  to 
take,  and  end  by  a  middle  one,  which  is  worse  than  either.' 
The  typical  and  familiar  ass  between  its  two  bundles  of  hay 
graphically  represents  both  the  state  of  mind  and  the  action 
or  inaction  of  such  vacillating  mules  and  men  alike. 

Preferences,  even  of  what  appear  to  be  of  a  singular  and 
unnatural  kind,  are  determined  sometimes  in  all  probability 


COUKTSHIP  AND   MARRIAGE.  473 

by  motives  that  are  intelligible  and  rational.  Thus  there  are 
many  animals  that,  having  tested  for  themselves  the  relative 
advantages  and  disadvantages  of  freedom  and  captivity, 
deliberately  submit  themselves  to  the  latter.  No  doubt  they 
usually  do  so  in  the  pleasant  form  of  mere  domesticity,  which 
allows  frequently  considerable  freedom  of  action.  Wild 
animals  that  have  been  made  captive  and  subsequently 
released  have  voluntarily  returned  to  what  were  virtually 
their  former  prisons  and  prison-life,  having  probably  learned 
by  ample  experience  how  hard  was  the  struggle  for  life  in 
freedom,  the  natural  state,  with  its  worries,  exposure,  and 
want,  and  how  pleasant  the  protected  artificial  life,  with  its 
abundant  feeding,  secure  protection  from  dreaded  enemies, 
and  absence  of  all  care. 

The  choice  of  a  minor  rather  than  of  a  major  evil  is  also 
quite  intelligible  and  rational.  There  are  many  birds  and 
other  animals  that  regard  man  as  an  enemy,  and  under 
ordinary  circumstances  avoid  him  as  such  ;  who  nevertheless 
fearlessly  seek  his  protection  when  a  more  relentless  enemy 
appears — a  more  immediate  or  certain  danger  threatens. 
Thus  various  small  birds  pursued  by  hawks  fly  precipitately 
into  man's  or  woman's  very  bosom.  Belt  mentions  a  cock- 
roach which,  fleeing  from  him,  encountered  a  spider,  when 
*  back  it  would  double,  facing  all  the  danger  from  me  rather 
than  advance  nearer  to  its  natural  enemy.'  There  can  be  no 
difiiculty  in  understanding,  moreover,  the  occasional  decided 
preference  shown  for  man's  society  over  that  of  their  own 
species  by  dogs  and  various  birds.  Man  can,  and  does,  give 
them  what  their  own  species  cannot,  while,  generally  speak- 
ing, access  to  their  own  species,  when  desired,  is  at  the  same 
time  not  prevented.  He  furnishes  at  once  shelter,  protec- 
tion, food,  and  companionship,  perhaps  he  reciprocates  their 
affection,  gives  them  that  for  which  they  long — sympathy 
and  love. 

On  the  other  hand,  preferences  that  are  utterly  unac- 
countable on  any  rational  ground,  and  that  yet  can  scarcely 
be  denominated  capricious,  are  illustrated  by  the  common 
cases  of  dogs  attaching  themselves  to  masters  who  are  cruel 
to  them,  and  maintaining  their  allegiance  after  a  long  course 


474  COURTSHIP  AND   MARRIAGE. 

of  neglect  or  ill-usage.  Inexplicable  attractions  are  not 
however  more  common  than  inexplicable  repulsions  or  anti- 
pathies— a  subject  that  falls  to  be  considered  in  the  chapter 
on  '  Individuality.' 

It  is  quite  relevant  to,  or  in  connection  with,  the  sub- 
ject of  courtship  and  marriage  to  refer  to  some  of  these 
demonstrations  of  affection  or  attachment  which  in  the  lower 
animals  are  .humanlike  in  their  character.  The  most  im- 
portant are  the  kiss,  embrace,  and  caress. 

The  operation  of  kissing,  or  some  equivalent  process, 
has  been  described  as  practised  by  a  considerable  number 
of  animals — including,  in  the  first  place,  various  quadru- 
mana,  such  as  the  chimpanzee,  orang,  and  various  baboons ; 
the  dog  and  cat,  horse,  cattle,  sea-bear  ;  cockatoo  and  other 
birds.  In  some  cases  the  operation  would  appear  to  consist 
simply  of  the  fond  rubbing  together  or  touching  of  mouths, 
lips,  noses,  or  beaks,  and  in  no  case  is  there,  so  far  as  I  am 
aware,  exactly  the  same  kind  of  smacking  of  the  lips  that 
occurs  in  man.  The  significance  of  the  process,  whatever 
be  its  nature,  which  is  necessarily  determined  by  the  struc- 
ture of  the  animal,  is  the  same  as  in  man ;  that  is  to  say, 
that,  while  usually  an  expression  of  endearment,  it  may  also 
be  one  of  simple  salutation  or  greeting. 

The  sea-bear  of  the  London  Zoological  Gardens  used  to 
try  to  kiss  its  keeper,  the  French  sailor  Lecomte  ;  and  I  have 
myself  seen  a  horse  do  the  same  in  a  circus  or  hippodrome. 
In  both  cases  it  was  attempted  at  the  command  of  their 
masters,  and  by  the  touching  of  noses  or  lips.  Wood  de- 
scribes a  cat  kissing  a  dog ;  '  she  greeted  him  with  a  kiss  ; 
literally,  they  touched  lips  and  noses.'  And  there  can  be 
no  doubt  about  the  dog  offering  its  caresses,  in  the  form  of 
lip  or  nose-touching,  as  well  as  tongue-licking  or  touching, 
to  man.  Berkeley  speaks  of  a  greyhound  '  covering  him 
with  kisses.'  A  cockatoo  is  described,  on  the  other  hand, 
as  soliciting  by  word  and  action  a  kiss  from  a  long-absent 
mistress  (Wood).  The  amicable  rubbing  of  noses  by  cattle, 
donkeys,  or  horses  over  or  on  different  sides  of  a  hedge  or 
fence  is  a  familiar  spectacle  in  country  districts.  Horses 
express  familiarity  with  each  other  by  mutual  rubbing  of 
noses  (Nichols). 


COURTSHIP  AND   MARRIAGE.  475 

If  it  should  be  objected  that  their  rubbing  of  noses  lias  a 
very  remote  resemblance  to  human  osculation,  we  have  only 
to  remind  the  reader  that  among  certain  savage  races  of  man 
the  rubbing  together  of  noses  is  the  mode  of  greeting  uni- 
formly adopted,  obviously  taking  the  place  of  the  kisses  that 
are  so  common  in  various  civilised  people,  such  as  pre-emi- 
nently the  Germans  and  French. 

This  appears  to  be  the  proper  place  also  to  take  some 
note  of  (esthetic  perception  in  the  lower  animals — of  their 
taste  for  the  beautiful,  of  their  appreciation  of  harmony, 
whether  in  form,  colour,  or  tone — a  subject  on  which  no 
man  has  written  sc  much  or  so  well  as  Charles  Darwin. 
First,  then,  it  has  to  be  remarked,  as  regards  man,  that — 

1.  The  aesthetic  sense  is  by  no  means  common.     It  is 
indeed  frequently  wanting  (Nichols) ;  while,  where  it  is  pre- 
sent in  certain  savage  races,  it  is  frequently  inferior  in  its 
character  to  that  which  occurs,  for  instance,  in  many  birds. 

2.  There  is  no  uniform  standard  or  criterion  of  taste, 
differing  as  it  does  in  different  races,  peoples,  and  countries, 
and  as  it  has  done  at  different  epochs  of  human  history  or 
in  different  stages  of  civilisation.     Hence  it  is  that  what  is 
by  one  people,  or  at  one  time  by  the  same  race,  considered 
beautiful  or  tasteful  is  regarded  by  or  at  another  as  quite 
the  reverse. 

It  does  not  follow,  therefore,  that  the  lower  animals 
have  the  same  ideas  of  the  beautiful  that  civilised  or  savage 
man  has.  But  that  their  conceptions,  frequently  at  least, 
coincide  with  those  of  man  is  proved  by  their  admiration  of 
such  magnificent  plumage  as  that  of  the  peacock's  tail  when 
expanded.  In  other  cases  there  is  an  admiration  of  the  same 
forms,  patterns,  or  colours  as  by  man  (Darwin).  ^Esthetic 
taste  in  the  lower  animals  includes  a  love  of — 

1.  Novelty. 

2.  Variety. 

3.  Fashion. 

4.  Ornament  or  finery. 

And  it  is  exhibited  in  various  forms  of — 

1.  Artistic  skill — for  instance,  in  the  decorative  arts,  as 
well  as  in  the — 


476  COURTSHIP  AND  MAKKIAGE. 

2.  Display  to  the  best  effect  of  graces  of  person — includ- 
ing the  colour  of  plumage. 

In  birds,  as  in  man,  it  would  appear  to  be  the  female  that 
most  frequently  and  decidedly  manifests  a  partiality  for  finery 
and  fashion,  for  self- decoration  (Kouzeau),  for  the  orna- 
mentation of  love-bowers,  or  other  places  of  rendezvous,  or 
of  nests  (Gould).  Even  among  humble  bees  there  are  ar- 
tists with  a  taste  for  the  ornamental  (Figuier).  Sir  John 
Lubbock  refers  to  the  obvious  (  evidences  that  the  beauty  of 
flowers  is  useful  in  consequence  of  its  attracting  insects.' 

Certain  birds  cultivate  beauty  of  person,  just  as  man,  or 
more  commonly  woman,  does ;  and  some  mammals  do  the 
same — polishing  their  fur,  for  instance,  as  birds  preen  their 
feathers.  Moreover,  taste  for  the  beautiful  is  improved  by 
being  exercised  or  cultivated  in  birds  as  in  man. 

Various  birds  and  other  animals  not  only  appreciate 
beauty  in  each  other,  but  they  are  conscious  of  the  existence 
and  of  the  value  of  their  own  personal  beauty.  They  take  a 
pride  in  it,  displaying  this  pride  in  a  variety  of  ways ;  and  so 
far  as  concerns  courtship  and  marriage,  they  make  use  of  it 
as  a  means  of  charming  or  attracting  the  opposite  sex.  Their 
pride  is  obviously  associated  with,  if  it  do  not  arise  from, 
their  love  of  admiration  and  their  capacity  of  inspiring  admi- 
ration. Nor  is  it  at  all  necessary  that  this  admiration  should 
proceed  from  other  individuals  of  the  species  to  which  an 
a,nimal  belongs.  The  peacock,  according  to  Wood,  '  seems 
to  be  just  as  proud  of  the  admiration  bestowed  by  human 
beings  as  of  that  offered  by  his  own  kind.' 

The  turkey,  in  his  nuptial  plumage,  *  surveys  himself 
with  ludicrous  complacency.'  The  whidah  (or  widow)  bird 
is  also  'wonderfully  proud  of  his  beautiful  tail'  (Wood). 
The  bird  of  paradise  makes  his  morning  toilet  very  care- 
fully, cleansing  his  plumage,  and  '  seeming  proud  of  its 
heavenly  beauty,  and  in  raptures  of  delight  with  its  own 
most  enchanting  self.'  One  of  them  inspected  the  state  of 
its  plumage  above  and  below,  '  as  proud  as  a  lady  in  her  full 
ball  dress  ....  looking  archly  at  the  spectators,  as  if  ready 
to  receive  all  the  admiration  that  it  considers  its  elegant 
form  and  display  of  plumage  demand'  (Bennett).  Here, 


COURTSHIP  AND  MARRIAGE.  477 

says  Wood,  is  ' pride  in  personal  appearance  developed  as 
strongly  as  it  could  be  in  any  human  being.  Moreover,  the 
bird  could  sufficiently  enter  into  the  feelings  of  the  specta- 
tors to  understand  that  they  were  admiring  its  beauty,  and 
to  exult  in  the  admiration.' 

Associated  with  vanity  there  is  sometimes  a  great  sus- 
ceptibility to  flattery  in  many  parrots  and  cockatoos,  that  at 
once,  when  asked  by  man,  expand  their  wings  so  as  to  show 
off  their  beauty  and  size  ('  Chambers's  Journal ').  Self- 
conceit  is  occasionally  such  as  to  lead  to  sad  self-deception, 
to  delusion,  and  even  to  fatal  disappointments — as,  for  in- 
stance, when  animals  believe  their  personal  charms  to  be 
irresistible. 

The  necessity  for  the  presence  of  spectators — and  for 
admiration  on  their  part — is  as  obvious  frequently  in  the 
love  or  other  exhibitions  of  various  birds  or  other  animals 
as  in  man  or  woman.  In  the  case  of  courtship  there  is  an 
ulterior  object  in  view,  but  in  other  cases  there  is  none — or 
at  least  none  intelligible  or  apparent — beyond  the  admira- 
tion called  forth,  and  the  homage  thereby  paid  to  self-esteem. 
Chillingham  bulls  perform  their  duels  before  cow  spectators, 
just  as  human  rivals  figure  at  a  tourney  (Aylmer).  The 
mandrill,  drill,  and  other  baboons  or  monkeys  display  their 
coloured  nates,  and  if  this  display  be  *  made  before  two 
observers,  they  turn  to  him  who  seems  to  pay  the  most 
attention  '  (Von  Fischer).  They  require  admiration  as  much 
as  does  the  girl-child  who  shows  off  her  last  new  frock  or 
doll.  There  is  a  necessity  for  the  appreciation  of  effort — the 
trouble  bestowed  on  which  is  regarded  as  thrown  away  if 
the  effort  itself  be  not  duly  observed,  or,  if  observed,  not 
duly  appreciated. 

Many  animals  solicit,  and  some  of  them  demand  attention 
or  recognition  from  man;  and  though  this  is  not  always  with  a 
view  to  his  admiration  of  themselves,  or  their  offspring,  or  the 
doings  of  either,  the  procedure  very  often  appears  to  have 
such  admiration  as  its  immediate  or  ulterior  object.  Certain 
birds  and  other  animals  even  enforce  attentions  from  each 
other — for  instance,  females  from  males.  The  canary  does 
so  imperiously  and  effectually  with  her  beak  ;  and  it  is  pro- 


478  COURTSHIP  AND   MARRIAGE. 

bably  to  this  sort  of  operation  by  female  birds,  jealous  of,  or 
longing  for,  masculine  attention,  that  we  owe  the  phrase  so 
commonly  applied  to  certain  human  husbands,  of  being  '  hen- 
pecked.' So  necessary  are  respect  or  attention  from  man  to 
certain  irritable,  jealous  house  pets,  or  menagerie  captives — 
such  as  the  felinse — that  dangerous  fury  is  apt  to  be  excited 
in  them  by  his  simple  indifference. 

Many  birds  and  other  animals  take  every  pains  to  ensure 
success  in  the  display  of  their  charms  before  the  other  sex,  or 
in  efforts  of  whatever  nature.  They  have  a  keen  enjoyment 
of  triumph,  and  they  celebrate  victory,  whatever  be  its 
nature,  in  a  variety  of  ways.  There  is  the  sense  of  triumph, 
the  air  of  triumph,  the  strut  of  triumph.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  there  is  corresponding  soreness  or  disappoint- 
ment at  non-success ;  and  failure,  according  to  its  nature, 
may  even  beget  melancholia,  abstinence,  marasmus  and 
death. 

The  efforts  of  a  male  suitor  to  please  or  charm  the  female 
to  whom  he  pays  court  are  not  always  received  favourably. 
On  the  contrary,  his  amatory  attentions  may  be  received 
with  disdain,  anger,  violence,  or  other  forms  of  repulse ;  and 
unfortunately,  one  of  these  forms  of  '  rejected  addresses '  is 
cannibalism — the  devouring  by  the  female  of  her  lover.  Thus 
we  are  told  that  the  '  female  spider  is,  in  many  of  the  species, 
much  larger  than  the  male.  And  a  very  remarkable  danger 
attends  the  amatory  approaches  of  the  latter — as,  if  they  are 
not  favourably  received,  he  is  not  uncommonly  killed  and 
eaten  on  the  spot'  [c  Chambers's  Encyclopaedia  '].  *  Disap- 
pointed affection '  is  probably  as  common  in  other  animals  as 
in  man,  '  jiltings  '  by  the  fickle  fair  quite  as  frequent. 

In  some  cases  the  refusal  of  the  attentions  of  the  male 
by  the  female  may  be  altogether,  or  in  some  measure,  his 
fault.  Thus  young  males  are  apt,  as  in  man,  to  be  forward, 
officious,  troublesome,  impatient,  over  eager,  unduly  amorous ; 
and  this  eagerness  may  even  be  morbid  in  its  excess  or 
nature,  leading  to  persecution  of,  and  danger  to,  the  female 
selected  for  their  attentions. 

In  such  cases  it  is  not  surprising  that  such  addresses 
should  be  avoided,  repulsed  or  punished.  But  in  other  cases 


COURTSHIP  AND  MARRIAGE.  479 

there  seems  to  be  nothing  lacking  on  the  part  of  the  male, 
whose  qualifications  as  a  suitor,  and  whose  mode  of  paying 
his  court,  exhibit  nothing  that  can  reasonably  be  objected  to. 
Nevertheless,  the  female  *  will  not  when  she  may ; '  and  her 
declinature  can  only  be  ascribed  to  caprice — to  some  causeless 
antipathy  to  the  suitor,  or  to  some  equally  unaccountable  pre- 
ference for  an  indifferent,  non-competing  stranger. 

Hence  it  happens  that,  in  other  animals  as  in  man,  the 
course  of  '  true  love  '  does  not  always  run  smoothly.  There 
is  no  accounting  for  the  love  vagaries  of  the  female,  who 
sometimes  pays  the  penalty  of  old-maidism  for  her  capricious 
rejection  of  eligible  offers  of  mates.  For  the  same  reason — 
the  caprice  of  the  female — bachelorhood  is  sometimes  com- 
pulsorily  inflicted  on  the  male.  As  in  man,  bachelorhood  and 
old-maidism  may  arise  from  unattractiveness  in  either  sex, 
from  incapacity  in  the  one  to  charm  the  other. 

The  delays  and  vagaries  of  love  frequently  arise  from  . 
fastidiousness  on  the  part  of  the  female.  There  is  difficulty, 
perhaps  impossibility,  in  pleasing  her ;  and  this  may  not  be 
confined  to  lovers  or  mates,  but  may  extend  to  food,  home, 
associates,  master,  and  '  things  in  general.'  This  fastidious- 
ness has  been  specially  noticed  in  the  bitch  (Walsh) ;  but  in  . 
her  and  other  female  animals  it  is  frequently,  at  least,  to  be 
regarded  as  morbid.  As  a  cause  of  love-delays  or  errors, 
it  is,  however,  intelligible.  But  caprice  often  defies  all 
attempts  to  understand  or  account  for  it.  And  it  is  far  from 
being  confined  to  love  affairs,  extending  also,  as  it  does,  to 
nesting  places — for  instance,  in  the  martin  (White) — to 
friendship,  and  to  many  other  of  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life. 
Whether  or  not  it  is  more  common,  it  has  certainly  been,  like 
fastidiousness,  much  more  commonly  noted,  in  the  female 
than  the  male ;  and  the  presumption  is  that  in  the  one  case, 
as  in  the  other,  it  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  morbid  peculiarity  of 
the  female. 

But  celibacy,  neither  in  female  nor  male,  is  always  thus 
compulsory  or  fortuitous.  It  would  appear,  in  some  cases  at 
least,  to  be  voluntary  and  deliberate — in  the  case,  for  in- 
stance, where  obstacles  arise  to  the  gratification  of  a  special 
choice. 


480  COUKTSHIP  AND  MARRIAGE. 

The  duration  of  courtship  in  birds  is  liable  to  the  same 
variations  as  in  man.  It  may  be  short  or  prolonged,  rapid 
or  dilatory ;  there  may  be  '  love  at  first  sight,'  leading  to  or 
ripening  speedily  into  matrimony ;  or  the  female  may  be  '  ill 
to  please  and  hesitant  in  making  up  her  mind ' — more  pro- 
bably as  to  the  merits  of  rival  candidates  for  the  favours  of 
love  than  as  to  marriage  itself.  The  rapidity  of  the  process 
of  wooing  is  most  marked  in  the  re-marriage  of  widows ; 
perhaps,  also,  of  widowers,  though  in  their  case  the  pheno- 
menon certainly  has  not  been  so  frequently  noticed.  The 
widow,  however,  manages,  in  a  marvellously  short  space  of 
time,  to  make  known  '  to  all  whom  it  may  concern/  or  per- 
haps to  some  favoured  male,  the  fact  that  she  is  once  more 
in  the  matrimonial  market,  again  ready  to  become  the  prize 
of  gallantry,  valour,  symmetry  or  song,  as  the  case  may  be. 
There  is  sometimes  the  same  unbecoming  unceremoniousness, 
the  same  *  hot  haste '  after  a  bereavement,  that  attends  occa- 
sionally, or  leads  to,  the  second  nuptials  of  those  who  ought 
to  be,  according  to  etiquette,  *  inconsolable '  or  {  disconsolate ' 
young  widows  among  mankind. 

Under  whatever  circumstances  the  marriage  tie  is  con- 
tracted, its  obligations  are  not  always  held  sacred,  any  more 
than  in  man.  Among  birds  especially  there  are  '  gay '  males 
or  females  that  boast  of  their  success  in  gallantry  or  solicita- 
tion. There  are  profligates  and  prostitutes  ;  illicit  as  well  as 
legitimate  amours ;  conjugal  infidelity  and  desertion ;  seduc- 
tions and  elopements  ;  marital  quarrels  of  all  kinds ;  and  not 
unfrequently  the  summary  punishment  of  marital  offences. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  affection  of  the  lover  or  the  mate 
is  frequently  marked  by  the  utmost  delicacy,  sincerity  and 
constancy — for  instance,  in  the  warbler  and  dove. 

As  in  man,  it  is  usually  the  male  who  courts  and  the 
female  who  is  courted.  She  is  passive,  except  in  the  import- 
ant matter  of  choosing  or  accepting  a  mate  ;  while  he  has  all 
the  fatigue,  anxiety,  and  danger  of  the  love  antics  or  dances, 
and  of  the  fights,  which  so  frequently  characterise  animal 
courtship.  There  are  exceptional  cases,  however,  in  which, 
just  again  as  in  mankind,  the  female  not  only  takes  the 
initiative,  but  plays  the  whole  game.  For  instance,  court- 


COURTSHIP  AND  MAERIAGE.  481 

ship  of  the  males  by  the  females  occurs  in  the  cassowary 
(Darwin).  Where  she  plays  the  part  of  the  male  through- 
out, she  exhibits  all  the  worst  of  his  passions,  such  as 
rivalry,  jealousy,  and  ferocity.  This  rivalry  and  jealousy 
lead  to  frequent  battles  for  the  possession  of  the  male — 
just  as  is  more  commonly  the  case  among  males  for  the 
capture  of  the  female.  The  struggles  of  these  Amazon  rivals 
are  sometimes  characterised  by  the  same  mercilessness  that 
is  exhibited  when  the  furious  male  is  the  combatant ;  and 
the  ferocity  displayed  is  occasionally  such  that  death  is  the 
result  in  the  unsuccessful. 

By  no  means  unfrequently  the  females  take  the  first  step 
in  love-making  by  their  solicitation,  by  the  various  wiles 
they  practise  on  impressionable  males,  which  are  the  same 
in  character  as  those  so  familiar  in  their  human  sisters,  and 
the  object  of  which  wiles  is  the  same  in  both  cases — the 
attraction  of  the  attentions  of  the  males. 


CHAPTEE  XXX. 

FOSTER    PARENTAGE. 

THE  phenomena  of  foster-parentage  offer  many  interesting 
illustrations  of  the  mental  and  moral  aptitudes  or  qualities  of 
the  lower  animals.  The  adoption  of  the  young,  not  only  of 
the  same  species,  but  of  other  species  and  genera  of  the  most 
diverse  structure  and  habits,  is  common  under  certain  cir- 
cumstances. The  most  common  of  these  circumstances  is 
the  non-gratification  of  the  imperious  maternal  instinct — the 
same  cause  that  leads  so  many  spinsters  of  certain  age  to  con- 
sole their  idleness  with  pet  dogs,  cats  or  birds,  or  so  many 
childless  couples  to  adopt  children  in  order  to  gratify  their 
parental  longings  and  inherit  their  wealth.  It  is,  therefore, 
usually  the  female  that  becomes  a  foster-parent,  and  takes 
home  to  her  affections,  and  to  her  board,  the  young  of  her 
neighbours,  and  failing  them,  or  otherwise  by  singularity  of 
preference,  the  offspring  of  other  species  or  genera.  There 
are  many  instances  of  hens  hatching  ducks'  eggs  and  bring- 
ing up  broods  of  ducklings,  of  geese  tending  ducklings,  of 
cats  nursing  each  other's  kittens,  and  of  a  whole  host  of 
other  birds  hatching  the  eggs  of  the  cuckoo.  But  much  more 
interesting  are  such  cases  as  the  following : — 

1.  Cats     and     bitches    suckling    each    other's    whelps 
(Houzeau). 

2.  Cats  suckling  or  bringing  up  young  squirrels,  dog- 
pups,  chickens,  rats,  and  leverets  or  young  hares — all  their 
natural  prey  or  enemies  (White). 

3.  Bitches  suckling  young  pigs,  kittens,  or  panther-cubs 
(Jesse  and  Jardine). 

4.  Hens  rearing  kittens,  of  which  an  instance  has  been 


FOSTER  PARENTAGE.  483 

given  me  by  a  relative,  or  other  birds  sitting  on  dog- 
pups. 

And  still  more  remarkable  is  the  occasional  suckling  of 
individuals  of  more  than  one  species  at  the  same  time  by  the 
same  mother,  as  in  the  case  of  a  cat  that  tried  to  suckle 
chickens  along  with  her  own  kittens. 

The  most  common  cause  or  motive  that  leads  to  the 
adoption  of  the  young  of  other  animals  is  the  loss  of  a 
mother's  own  young,  and  the  felt  necessity  of  gratifying  her 
bereaved  maternal  instinct.  So  strong,  so  urgent,  so  irresis- 
tible even,  is  this  necessity,  that  it  leads  occasionally  to  the 
abduction,  or  theft,  of  the  young  of  other  animals.  No  doubt 
the  result  is  usually  beneficent,  so  far  as  concerns  the  up- 
bringing of  the  abducted  young,  seeing  that  the  self-consti- 
tuted foster-mother  lavishes  on  them  all  the  care  she  would 
have  bestowed  on  her  own.  Nevertheless,  there  is  a  selfish 
disregard  of  the  feelings  of  the  other  and  true  mother,  who 
is  bereaved  by  such  an  abduction. 

Sterility — the  want  of  offspring — operates  in  the  same 
way  as  bereavement  or  loss  of  young.  The  female  of  ma- 
ture age,  whose  longings  for  progeny  have  not  been  gratified 
in  the  natural  way,  takes  the  only  means  that  remain  to 
.her  of  so  far  satisfying  her  paramount  desire  to  have  some 
of  her  own  species  on  whom  to  lavish  her  overflowing  af- 
fection. 

This  sort  of  what  may  be  called  vicarious  maternity,  this 
assumption  of  the  duties  of  a  mother,  is  not  always  confined 
to  the  female.  There  are  occasional  exceptional  cases  in 
which  the  male  takes  a  female's  place  in  the  hatching  and 
up-bringing  of  young,  whether  its  own  or  those  of  other 
species  or  genera.  Thus  we  are  told  of  a  male  turkey  hatch- 
ing duck's  eggs. 

Generally  speaking,  the  adoption  of  foster-young  is 
voluntary ;  the  foster-mother  is  self-elected.  But  in  some 
cases  the  bringing  up  of  the  young  of  other  species  or  genera 
is  involuntary  or  non-voluntary  ;  or  at  least  there  is  no  spon- 
taneous selection,  either  of  the  maternal  office,  or  of  the 
objects  of  affection ;  for  instance,  where  young  are  deserted, 
orphaned  and  cast  upon  the  care  of  sometimes  an  unwitting 


484  FOSTER  PARENTAGE. 

foster-mother,  as  bj  the  cuckoo — or  where  orphaned,  lost  or 
deserted  young  seek  the  good  offices  of  some  other  mother 
than  their  own. 

There  are  several  other  circumstances  under  which  foster- 
mothers  act  as  such  un wittingly,  ignorantly,  exhibiting  therein 
grave  errors  of  the  maternal  instinct.  Thus  certain  birds  sit 
on  l  dummies,'  on  stones  or  other  inanimate  objects,  on  the 
eggs  or  even  the  young  of  other  species — all  substituted 
experimentally  by  man  for  their  own  eggs  or  young,  without 
their  ever  detecting  the  deception.  Not  uniformly,  however, 
do  they  betray  such  ignorance  and  error.  Romanes  mentions 
a  Spanish  hen  that,  disappointed  in  the  gratification  of  her 
maternal  instincts  by  being  placed  upon  *  dummies,'  after 
losing  patience  at  the  absence  of  the  expected  result, '  turned 
foster-mother  to  all  the  Spanish  chickens  in  the  yard,'  of  all 
ages,  but  only  to  those,  be  it  observed  in  this  case,  of  her  own 
breed — Brahma  and  Hamburg  chickens  not  being  adopted 
with  the  others. 

In  the  case  of  a  cat  recently  confined,  two  young  squirrels 
were  artificially  substituted  for  two  kittens  that  were  killed  : 
the  cat  did  not  notice  her  loss — that  is  to  say,  at  first.  For 
sooner  or  later  in  such  cases  the  development  of  the  natural 
instincts  of  the  foster-young — climbing  trees  and  eating  nuts. 
in  the  case  of  young  squirrels — taking  to  the  water  in  the 
case  of  ducklings,  gives  rise  to  unbounded  astonishment  and 
alarm  in  the  foster-mother.  When  a  hen  sees  the  ducklings 
hatched  by  herself  taking  to  a  horse  pond,  she  gives  no  un- 
certain signs  of  her  surprise,  concern,  dread  of,  or  at,  their 
— by  her  supposed — singular  behaviour ;  and  she  feels  sadly 
puzzled  and  annoyed  at  her  inability  to  follow  them  upon 
their  natural  element.  Foster-mothers,  therefore,  may  and 
do  undertake  duties  of  the  nature  of  which  they  are  ignorant, 
and  for  the  results  of  which  they  are  unprepared. 

The  Ettrick  Shepherd  tells  us  that  a  mother  sheep,  de- 
prived of  her  own  young,  will  take  to  suck  the  lambs  of 
another  mother  if  clad  in  the  skin  of  one  of  her  own  dead 
lambs.  '  She  accepts  and  nourishes  it  as  her  own  ever  after ' 
— not  detecting  the  imposture.  But  what  is  more  curious, 
for  some  days  at  first,  the  deceived  mother  '  shows  far  more 


FOSTER  PARENTAGE.  485 

fondness  by  bleating  and  caressing  over  this  one  than  she  did 
formerly  over  the  one  that  was  really  her  own.' 

In  some  cases  the  foster-mother  devotes  her  whole  atten- 
tion to  her  foster-young,  if  the  latter  are  of  the  same  age 
and  of  the  same  species.  In  other  cases  the  foster-mother 
has  young  of  her  own,  in  which  case  the  adoption  of  the 
young  of  other  individuals,  species  or  genera,  is  usually  the 
result  of  compassion  and  over-flowing  motherly  love,  not 
of  an  ungratified  maternal  instinct.  In  such  cases,  cats  and 
other  animals  make  no  invidious  distinction  of  the  adopted 
strangers ;  the  orphaned  or  deserted  offspring  rank  pari 
passu  with  her  own  in  the  affections  of  the  foster-mother. 

As  a  general  rule,  foster-parentage,  the  assumption  of 
a  mother's  duties,  the  adoption  of  young,  whether  orphaned 
or  deserted  or  not,  developes  all  the  finer  traits  of  the 
maternal  character — constancy  and  intensity  of  affection, 
unremitting  attention,  lavish  generosity,  touching  tenderness, 
self-sacrificing  devotion.  Foster-parents  sometimes  die,  sac- 
rifice themselves,  in  the  discharge  of  their  self-imposed  duties, 
e.g.  the  lark  (Buffon).  Low  tells  us  of  the  tenderness  of  a 
bereaved  bitch  to  her  foster-young.  THe  female  elephant 
allows  herself  to  be  suckled  by  other  youngsters  than  her 
own,  an  illustration  of  maternal  generosity  (Houzeau) ;  and 
the  same  is  done  sometimes  by  the  dog  and  cat. 

But,  011  the  other  hand,  a  selfish,  rigid,  and  jealous  exclu- 
siveness  may  be  exhibited,  as  when  a  cow  repulses  the  calf 
of  another  cow. 

Instances  of  indifference  or  cruelty  are  commonest,  in 
other  animals  as  in  man,  011  the  part  of  stepmothers — and, 
unfortunately  also  of  fathers  at  the  instance  of  stepmothers. 
Thus  Watson  mentions  the  ill-feeling  of  a  turkey  step- 
mother to  her  adopted  young,  and  the  resultant  merciless ; 
treatment — the  father  becoming  indifferent  or  unnatural  in; 
his  affection,  perhaps  under  his  second  spouse's  malign  influ- 
ence. A  common  form  of  a  stepmother's  unfair  treatment 
of  her  adopted  young  is  her  selfish  exclusion  from  her  affec- 
tions and  attentions  of  all  offspring  not  her  own.  It  may  be, 
Watson  suggests,  parental  affection  that  leads  the  widower 
swallow  to  provide  a  stepmother  for  his  brood;  and  we  know 


486  FOSTER  PARENTAGE. 

that  this  is  usually  the  assigned  motive,  under  similar  cir- 
cumstances, in  man.  But  unfortunately  neither  in  men,  nor 
among  other  animals,  does  the  experiment  usually  prove 
fortunate,  so  far  as  concerns  the  happiness  or  comfort  of  the 
first  young  family. 

It  happens,  occasionally,  that  more  than  one  foster-parent 
or  mother  takes  a  fancy  to  a  young  brood,  under  which 
circumstances  quarrels  for  exclusive  possession  of  the  envied 
treasures  might  be  expected  to  occur,  and  probably  do  occa- 
sionally occur.  But  on  the  other  hand,  and  on  the  contrary, 
these  competing  foster-parents  find  it  to  be  equally  their 
interest  and  pleasure  to  co-operate  in  tending  a  group  of 
young,  adopted  by  both.  Wood  tells  us  that  a  widowed  goose, 
'  without  encumbrances,'  took  a  fancy  to  a  brood  of  ducklings 
that  had  previously  been  adopted  by  a  hen.  A  mutual 
arrangement  was  arrived  at  whereby  the  hen  tended  the 
brood  on  land,  and  the  goose  on  water.  But  the  hen  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  contented  with  this  division  of  labour 
and  love,  and  a  further  arrangement  was  entered  into  whereby 
both  foster-mothers  could  follow  their  darlings  on  water  as 
well  as  on  land.  The  plan  adopted  in  regard  to  the  water 
was  that  the  hen  should  sit  on  the  goose's  back  while  she 
swam  about  after  and  among  the  ducklings.  This  Wood 
expressly  describes  as  (  a  fact/  and  not '  a  solitary  event,'  for 
it  continued,  to  be  repeated  day  after  day,  till  the  ducklings 
were  old  enough  not  to  require  the  care  of  either  self- 
appointed  guardian. 

Some  animals — such  as  young  cuckoos — regularly  stand 
in  need  of  the  services  of  foster-parents  in  their  up-bringing ; 
they  are  brought  up,  if  at  all,  by  mothers  of  some  other  species 
or  genus  (Baird).  In  their  case  there  is  a  systematic  baby- 
nursing  by  some  other  bird.  The  mother-cuckoo  *  boards 
out'  its  nurslings ;  she  transfers  the  maternal  duty  of  rearing 
her  young  to  some  willing  or  unwilling  stranger  foster- 
mother  ;  she  shirks  and  escapes  from  what  appears  to  be  a 
troublesome,  though  natural,  duty ;  and  all  this  has  its 
parallel  or  counterpart  in  the  behaviour  of  too  many  ladies 
of  fashion  in  America,  France  and  England,  who  devolve 
upon  others  some  of  the  perhaps  irksome  duties  of  their  own 
maternity. 


FOSTEK  PAKENTAGE.  487 

But  there  are  other  and  more  legitimate  or  commendable 
forms  of  boarding  out  the  young  by  certain  animals.  Thus  the 
effect  of  the  experience  of  kind  treatment  of  its  kittens  by  a 
human  mistress  has  led  a  cat  in  a  subsequent  confinement  to 
quarter  one  kitten  after  another  on  this  human  foster-mother, 
to  leave  them  as  foundlings  at  her  hearth  ;  a  kind  of  deser- 
tion of  offspring,  dictated  by  no  want  of  natural  affection, 
but  apparently  by  the  same  kind  of  policy  that  leads  so  many 
poor  human  parents  to  agree  to  the  adoption  and  up-bring- 
ing of  one  or  more  of  their  loved  young  by  some  wealthy 
and  childless,  but  kindly,  widow  or  couple.  A  cat  of  feeble 
nursing  power  carried  her  kitten  to  another  feline  mother, 
who  at  once,  for  friendship's  sake,  or  from  a  liberal  maternal 
love,  accepted  the  new  and  additional  duties  imposed  upon 
her  (Wynter). 

One  of  the  most  interesting  forms  of  foster-parentage  is 
the  tender  nursing  of  human  children  by  the  elephant  (Wat- 
son), horse,  and  dog.  Such  nursing  shows  that  there  is  no 
necessary  impossibility  or  improbability  in  human  children 
becoming  sometimes  foster-young  to  beasts — such  as  wolves 
— in  the  so-called  *  Wolf-children '  of  India,  for  instance, 
being  really  tended,  as  story  reports,  by  forest  wolves. 

Just  as  there  is  so  frequently  a  transfer  of  maternal  love 
to  the  young  of  another  individual  or  species,  so  there  is  a 
much  more  natural  and  intelligible,  an  easy  and  rapid,  trans- 
fer of  filial  affection  and  attachment  on  the  part  of  foster- 
young  to  their  foster-mother.  There  is  a  very  natural  and 
intelligible  reciprocity  of  affection :  the  young  that  are  so 
lovingly  catered  for,  fostered  and  cherished,  respond  to  all 
this  care  and  attention  as  they  would  have  done  to  that  of 
their  own  mothers,  provided  these  mothers  had  displayed  a 
natural  kind  or  degree  of  maternal  solicitude. 

But  there  are  other  results  in  the  foster-young  that  are 
of  even  greater  interest  and  importance,  to  wit — the  acquisi- 
tion of  habits  alien  to  the  species  or  genus — of  the  habits  of  the 
foster-parents — an  acquisition  begotten  either  by  mere  imita- 
tion and  association,  by  special  training,  or  by  both.  The 
same  thing  happens  when  an  animal  from  birth  is  brought  up 
exclusively  with  companions  of  a  different  species  or  genus. 


FALLIBILITY. 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 

LIABILITY    TO    ERROR. 

ONE  of  the  commonest  popular  attributes  of  that  comprehen- 
sive faculty  in  the  lower  animals,  which,  when  contrasted 
with  human  reason,  is  generally  described  as  instinct ;  that 
quality  of  instinct,  which  is  perpetually  brought  into  greatest 
and  admiring  prominence  by  writers,  especially  of  the  theo- 
logical or  pietistic  class,  on  the  marvels  of  the  animal  eco- 
nomy, is  the  unerringness,  infallibility,  perfection  of  instinct. 
But  it  is  a  fact  utterly  fatal  to  such  a  view  of  the  infallibility 
of  animal  instinct  that  the  lower  animals  make  mistakes ; 
they  exhibit  errors  both  of  omission  and  commission,  of  the 
same  kind,  under  the  same  sort  of  circumstances,  as  nume- 
rous and  varied  in  their  character,  as  man  himself  does,  or 
as  those  of  man  are — that  is  to  say,  they  are  such  as 
man  commits,  or  would  commit,  under  similar  circumstances. 
So  infinite  indeed,  both  in  number  and  variety,  are  the 
proofs  of  the  fallibility  of  what  is  absurdly,  restrictively  called 
instinct  in  the  lower  animals,  that  it  is  impossible,  in  the 
present  work,  to  do  much  more  than  merely  catalogue  and 
comment  upon  a  few  illustrations. 

Among  errors  may  perhaps  be  regarded  the  non- 
variation  of  instinct  with  circumstances,  the  want  of 
adaptability  to  external  or  surrounding  conditions,  that 
characterises  certain  animals,  such  as  beavers  and  monkeys 
in  artificial  confinement. 


LIABILITY  TO  ERROR.  489 

The  mistakes  of  other  animals,  as  of  man,  are  mostly 
attributable  to — 

1.  Thoughtlessness,  ignorance,   or   inexperience,  as  these 
are  embodied  in  youth ;  or  they  belong  to  the  category  of — 

2.  Errors  of  judgment,  discrimination,  or  discretion,  in 
maturity ;  or,  they  arise  from 

3.  Natural  stupidity,  or  the  various  forms  or  degrees  of 
mental  defect  or  derangement. 

These  errors  may  be  classified  in  various  ways,  arranged 
in  various  natural  groups.  Thus  in  reference  to  the  kinds  of 
error,  which  are  also  causes  thereof,  we  may  consider  sepa- 
rately and  specially  errors  of — 

1.  Observation:  such  as  identity  or  resemblance. 

2.  Way-finding. 

3.  Calculation  of  distance,  size,  height,  time,  position, 

motion. 

4.  Imitation  and  mimicry. 

5.  Weather- knowledge. 

6.  Curiosity,  or  inquisitiveness. 

7.  Attention. 

8.  Interpretation,  inference,  or  conclusion. 

9.  Covetousness,  or  acquisitiveness. 

10.  Imagination. 

11.  The  senses:  vision,  smell,  hearing. 

12.  Eeflection. 

13.  Caution,  haste,  eagerness,  impatience. 

1 4.  Impulse  and  impulsiveness. 

15.  Temptation. 

16.  Providence  and  forethought. ' 

17.  Prudence  and  policy. 

18.  Confidence. 

19.  Memory. 

20.  Affection  or  attachment. 

21.  Fidelity  and  obedience. 

22.  Self-sacrifice  and  generosity. 

23.  Selfishness  and  self-preservation. 

24.  Gratitude  and  respect. 

25.  Habit  and  discipline. 

26.  Will  and  self-control. 


490  LIABILITY  TO  ERROR. 

27.  Instinct. 

28.  Panic,  fright  and  fear. 

29.  Combativeness  and  temper  :  obstinacy. 

30.  Rivalry  and  jealousy. 

31.  Destructiveness. 

32.  Perseverance,  pertinacity,  importunity. 

33.  Supposition  and  causality. 

34.  Suspicion. 

35.  Delusion. 

36.  Dreaming  and  sleep. 

37.  Wildness. 

38.  Civilisation,  or  domesticity. 

39.  Language,  knowledge  of  words  and  their  significa- 

tion. 

40.  Feeding  and  appetite. 

41.  Intoxication. 

42.  Sexual  passion  or  lust. 

43.  Pairing. 

44.  Pregnancy  and  parturition. 

45.  Incubation. 

46.  Cleanliness. 

47.  Construction,  and  constructiveness  or  ingenuity :  as 

regards  material,  form,  locality. 

48.  Domicile  or  shelter. 

The  mistakes  of  animals  may  also  be  divided  into  those 
characteristic  of  youth,  maturity,  and  age;  or  into  those 
which  affect  species,  such  as  the  bee,  or  dog ;  or  into  those 
which  are — 

1.  Natural,  excusable  or  pardonable,  as  the  fruit  of  igno- 
rance ;  and  those  that  are — 

2.  Inexcusable  and  punishable,  sins  against  knowledge — 
of  the  nature,  in  other  words,  of  crime ;  or  into  those  that 
are — 

3.  Capable  of  ready  explanation  as  to  their  obvious  cau- 
sation ;  and  those  that  are — 

4.  Unaccountable,   incapable   at  present  of  satisfactory 
explanation ;  or  into — 

5.  Errors  of  health  and.  disease,  mental  and  bodily,  in- 
cluding all  the  stages  of  debility. 


LIABILITY  TO  EEROE.  491 

There  are  certain  disadvantages,  as  well  as  advantages, 
from  arranging  the  errors  of  the  lower  animals  under  such 
heads  as  have  just  been  given.  And  indeed,  the  disadvan- 
tages so  preponderate  over  the  advantages,  that  it  is  prefer- 
able not  to  fetter  ourselves  by,  or  to,  any  given  classification, 
because  it  will  soon  appear  obvious  that  any  one  animal, 
such  as  the  bee,  or  dog,  may  commit  errors  referable  to  a 
great  many  categories  or  classes;  while  any  given  error  may 
involve  observation,  judgment,  reflection,  memory,  and  a 
number  of  other  mental  qualities.  Moreover,  there  are  whole 
groups  of  mistakes  that  cannot  as  yet,  or  at  present,  be 
properly  explained,  though  they  may  become  quite  capable 
of  explanation  when  the  errors  of  the  lower  animals  have 
attracted  the  kind  and  degree  of  study  that  they  deserve. 

Not  only,  however,  do  animals  make  mistakes  innumer- 
able ;  but  they  themselves  discover,  or  detect  and  rectify, 
their  own  mistakes,  while  they  notice  equally  those  of  other 
animals,  and  of  man  himself.  There  is,  in  the  first  place, 
a  consciousness,  recognition,  or  perception  of  error,  which 
frequently  leads  to  an  avowal  or  confession  of  it  in  the  form 
of  shame,  chagrin,  or  self-blame.  This  sense  of  error  is  often 
followed  by  efforts  at  rectification,  by  obvious  and  earnest 
desire  to  make  amends,  or  atonement.  There  may  be  at 
first  but  a  suspicion  of  error,  which  begets  expressions  of 
anxiety  and  distrust,  and  leads  to  investigation,  inquiry,  or 
examination,  testing  or  experiment ;  and  the  latter  process, 
which  may  be  very  cautious,  careful  and  thorough,  usually 
leads  to  conviction,  either  of  error,  or  of  freedom  from  it.  As 
in  man,  this  correction  of  first  errors  is  the  result,  usually, 
either  of: — 

1.  The  use  of   other  senses  than  the  one  originally   at 
fault ; 

2.  The  acquisition  of  experience;  or 

3.  The  application    of  judgment,    involving  reflection, 
comparison,  the  sense  of  the  relation  of  cause  and  effect,  and 
other  mental  qualities  assignable  to  the  domain  of  reason. 

The  parrot,  and  other  birds,  make  '  false  notes '  in  song ; 
but  they  immediately  recognise  their  blunders  and  correct 
them  ('Percy  Anecdotes').  Dray  horses  and  mules  fre- 


492  LIABILITY  TO  ERROR. 

quently  damage  their  loads  at  first ;  but,  gradually  profiting 
by  experience,  they  correct  their  early  errors  of  simple 
inexperience  (Houzeau).  Chickens  arrest  themselves  in  the 
very  act  of  error  and  avert  it  (Spalding) .  Colonel  O'Kelly's 
famous  parrot,  if  it  mistook,  in  beating  time,  a  note  in  music, 
'  would  revert  to  the  bar  where  the  mistake  was  made  and 
correct  itself.'  Similarly,  the  parrot  corrects  its  own  errors 
in  speech.  There  is  a  speedy  discovery  of  error  in  ants  that 
have  mistaken  seeds  for  larvse,  or  beads  for  seed  (Moggridge) . 

The  recognition  and  rectification  of  error  in  the  dog  in- 
cludes the  discovery  of  its  own,  and  of  its  master's  blunders 
in  the  game  of  dominoes  (Watson) :  and  even  the  correction 
of  its  own  mistakes  in  grammar  or  orthography,  composi- 
tion or  spelling,  by  the  trained  transposition  of  painted  or 
figured  words,  or  letters.  Its  consciousness  of  error,  moreover, 
is  frequently  expressed  by  what  may  literally,  as  well  as 
figuratively,  be  called  its  shamefacedness :  its  sense  of  blun- 
der often  developes  a  keen  feeling  of  self-accusation,  which 
leads  to  its  retirement  from  its  accustomed  haunts — especially 
from  man's  observation. 

In  other  animals,  as  in  man,  the  discovery  of  error  may 
be  too  late  to  admit  of  its  rectification,  as  in  the  case  of 
Mrs.  MacKellar's  fox-terrier,  that  surreptitiously  dropped 
fish  back  into  the  water  as  fast  as  they  were  caught  by  his 
mistress,  and  apparently  discovered  his  error  only  when  no 
more  fish  were  caught.1 

Even  the  most  sagacious  animals  are  sometimes  led,  by 
their  unsuspiciousness  or  inexperience  of  man's  treachery 
or  trickery,  into  error  at  first  sight,  as  in  the  case  of  menagerie 
elephants  at  first  mistaking  stones  for  nuts.  But  the  dis- 
covery of  the  deception  is  speedy,  and  the  results  of  that 
discovery  sometimes  serious  to  the  perpetrator  of  the  cruel 
practical  joke.  The  musk-ox  commits  an  error  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  sound  when  it  fails  to  distinguish  a  rifle  report 
from  thunder.  It  shows,  however,  a  speedy  perception  of 
its  mistake,  correcting  it  by  the  application  of  other  senses 
or  sensations — of  sight  and  scent  (Richardson) . 

It  does  not,  by  any  means,  follow  that  where  error  is  re- 

1  <  North  British  Advertiser,'  January  23,  1875. 


LIABILITY  TO  EEEOR.  493 

cognised  it  is  avowed  and  amended;  on  the  contrary,  in 
highly  sensitive  animals — such  as  the  dog — the  fear  of 
human  ridicule,  the  dread  of  detection  by  a  master  or 
mistress  and  of  punishment  following  detection,  lead  to 
various  eiforts  at  the  concealment  of  error,  from  at  least 
human  eyes. 

Thus  a  terrier  that  had  worried  a  toy  (imitation)  cat, 
( finding  we  were  laughing  at  his  discomfiture,'  tried  to 
make  believe  that  *  it  had  only  been  a  sham  fight  from  the 
beginning,'  thereby  'evidently  wishing  to  hide  his  mistake:' 
an  action  that  was  'very  human,'  as  '  it  behaved  just  as  a 
clever  child  might  be  expected  to  do,  when  it  had  been  de- 
ceived, and  was  afraid  of  ridicule'  (Wood). 

It  has  been  already  stated  that  animals  are  ready  to 
detect  the  blunders  of  their  fellows — the  old,  for  instance,  to 
notice  the  faults  of  the  young ;  and  one  result  of  this  is,  that 
those  which  have  the  power  punish  the  generally  younger 
individuals,  or  smaller  and  feebler  animals,  that  commit 
these  mistakes. 

Thus  ants  not  only  detect,  but  punish  for  mistakes.  Other 
animals,  like  man,  have,  moreover,  to  pay  the  natural  penalty 
of  their  mistakes :  experience — a  knowledge  of  the  means  of 
avoiding,  or  of  correcting  error — has  to  be  purchased  some- 
times at  heavy  cost.  The  recognition  of  errors  in  offspring, 
and  the  consequent  chastisement  of  the  young,  for  their  faults 
of  omission  or  commission,  are  more  fully  treated  of  in  the 
chapters  on  '  Law  and  Punishment,'  and  on  '  Education ; ' 
while  the  question  of  responsibility  to,  and  punishment  by, 
man,  is  discussed  in  those  on  '  Moral  Responsibility '  and  on 
'  Crime  and  Criminality.' 

The  mental  means  by  which  the  discovery  of  error  is 
made  are  obviously  the  same  in  the  lower  animals,  and  in 
savage  or  civilized  men.  Mistakes  can  be  detected  and  cor- 
rected only  by  the  use  of  reason.  When  it  is  defective  or 
deranged,  there  is  an  incapacity  for  discovering,  and  con- 
sequently for  amending,  error ;  seeing  that,  where  it  is  not 
perceived,  or  found  out,  error  cannot  be  rectified.  Hence 
many  animals  exhibit  a  peculiar  liability  to  error  without 
being  at  all  aware  of  its  commission,  without  having  any 


494  LIABILITY  TO   ERROR. 

conception  of  its  nature,  and  without,  therefore,  any  effort 
at  self-extrication,  or  at  remedy.  They  are  perpetually 
blundering  without  being  conscious  they  are  so  doing ;  they 
are  not  led  by  experience  to  the  correction  of  their  mistakes. 
Such  animals  are  the  subjects  either  of  a  congenital  stupidity 
— of  mental  defect,  or  of  disorder  of  the  mental  powers 
subsequent  to  birth. 

On  the  other  hand,  just  as  there  are  individuals  pecu- 
liarly stupid  in  the  detection  and  remedy  of  blunders,  there 
are  others  that  are  peculiarly  clever,  or  intelligent.  These 
clever  individuals  display  a  singular  freedom,  from  the  com- 
mission of  mistakes,  as  well  as  a  marked  quickness  in  their 
discovery,  and  ingenuity  in  their  rectification,  when  com- 
mitted. In  other  words,  they  seldom  blunder,  but  when 
they  do  so,  they  seldom  fail  speedily  to  detect  and  correct 
their  error. 

The  recognition  of  man's  errors  may  be  supposed  to  imply 
a  higher  degree  of  intelligence  than  the  detection  of  their 
own  mistakes,  or  those  of  their  fellows.  Such  recognition 
includes  a  detection  of  various  impostures  or  deceptions 
practised  on  other  animals  by  man :  a  subject  more  fully 
alluded  to  in  the  chapters  on  *  Deception'  and  '  Practical 
Jokes.'  '  Learned '  dogs,  that  play  dominoes  with  him,  ex- 
press, by  their  gaze,  their  recognition  of,  and  surprise  at, 
man's  errors  in  the  game,  when  he  makes  any  (Watson). 

The  causes  of  error  in  the  lower  animals  may  be  either : 

1.  Obvious ;  or 

2.  Discoverable  only  on  close  inquiry,  or  adequate  re- 
search ;  or  they 

3.  Are  not  at  present  discoverable  or  demonstrable  at 
all. 

They  may  also  be  either  real,  or  merely  apparent :  and 
investigation  may  be  necessary  to  discriminate  between  the 
apparent  and  real.  And  further,  they  may  be  simple  or 
complex,  and  trivial  or  inadequate,  disproportionate  to  the 
result,  or  vice  versa. 

The  triviality  of  the  causes  of  error  is  sometimes  very 
remarkable.  This  is  illustrated  by  certain  mistakes  regard- 
ing identity  of  person :  as  when  a  dog  does  not  know  its 


LIABILITY  TO   ERROR.  495 

own  naked  master,  who  has  gone  to  bathe,  leaving  his 
clothes  in  his  dog's  guardianship.  Some  very  ludicrous 
incidents  have  occurred  from  this  kind  of  stupidity  and 
fidelity:  when  a  dog  refuses  to  permit  the  bather's  clothes  to 
be  touched  by  their  own  proprietor,  not  recognising  him  in 
puris  naturalibus.  Here  change  of  dress — or  what  is  equi- 
valent— absence  of  his  master's  usual  garb,  is  the  simple  and 
obvious  cause  of  the  dog's  mistake.  Something  analogous 
occurs  in  the  case  of  newly  shorn,  or  washed  sheep,  which 
are  not  at  first,  or  readily,  recognised  by  each  other,  so  that 
there  is  always,  for  a  time,  great  confusion  of  personal  iden- 
tities among  sheep,  after  their  clipping  or  dipping  (White). 
On  the  other  hand,  some  fatal  accidents  to  man  have  occurred 
from  this  combination  of  stupidity  and  fidelity  in  the  dog. 
Simple  haste  in  not  taking  time  to  make  sure  of  their  iden- 
tity leads  the  dog  to  attack,  with  equal  fury  and  determi- 
nation, supposed  or  imaginary,  and  real  .  strangers  or 
enemies  (Pierquin). 

'  There  is  no  more  horrible,  and  at  the  same  time,  authen- 
tic dog-story,  than  that  of  the  huntsman,  who,  hearing  a 
tremendous  yelping  in  the  kennel  one  night,  went  down  in 
his  shirt,  with  his  double  thong  in  his  hand,  to  quell  the 
disturbance.  But  the  hounds  did  not  recognise  their  master 
without  his  scarlet  coat,  and  they  literally  ate  the  huntsman 
up.'1 

Various  birds  break  their  eggs,  or  destroy  their  nests 
when  either  have  been  simply  meddled  with  (Houzeau). 
The  mere  soiling  of  the  young  is  a  cause  of  dislike  to  them 
on  the  part  of  the  mother  guinea  pig  (Oassell) — an  error 
surely  of  over- cleanliness. 

The  following  are  illustrations  of  errors,  the  causes  of 
which  are  at  present  problematical.  We  can  only  make 
guesses  at  them. 

1.  Salmon  killing  themselves  in  myriads,  by  leaping  on 
dry  land — jumping  'out  of  the  frying  pan  into  the  fire.' 
Probably  they  are  pursued,  in  such  cases,  by  some  formidable 
and  relentless  enemy. 

1  «  Daily  Telegraph,'  October  7,  1874. 
33 


496  LIABILITY  TO  ERROR. 

2.  The  dog  that  rolls  itself  in  putrid  carcases  only  at- 
tracts fl,ies  to  torment  it  (Houzeau). 

3.  Lemmings  drowning  themselves  in  vast  numbers. 

4.  Midges,  butterflies,  or  other  insects  immolating  them- 
selves in  flame. 

5.  And  a  host  of  other  cases,  some  of  which  are  enume- 
rated in  the  chapter  that  treats  of  '  Unsolved  Problems  in 
Comparative  Psychology.' 

The  errors  of  animals  are  constantly  taken  advantage  of, 
on  the  one  hand  by  each  other,  and  on  the  other,  by  man. 
In  particular,  these  mistakes  are  of  great  practical  impor- 
tance to  man  in  the  capture  of  animals,  for  his  various 
purposes.  Mistaken  confidence  in  man  is  fatal  to  many 
birds  and  other  animals.  The  whole  system  of  decoy,  as  used 
by  man  in  the  capture  of  animals,  is  based  on  their  liability 
to  error.  The  song  bird,  in  listening  to,  and  following 
man's  '  calls  ;5  the  wild  duck,  or  elephant,  that  allows  itself 
to  be  lured  by  the  trained  decoy  ;  the  emu,  that  is  deceived 
by  the  Australian  black, who  imitates  its  appearance  and  gait  j 
the  fish  that  fails  to  distinguish  the  real  from  the  artificial 
fly,  or  that  is  fascinated  by  the  glare  of  some  artificial  light 
— commit  errors  of  observation,  attention,  or  reflection, 
or  all  three — errors  that  subserve  man's  purpose  in  their 
capture. 

Monkeys  that  are  trapped  or  captured  by  means  of  mon- 
key-pots— the  seed  vessels,  or  fruit,  of  a  large  Brazilian  forest 
tree — sacrifice  their  liberty  or  life  to  their  errors  of  over- 
eagerness,  want  of  reflection,  greed  or  stupidity  (Buckland, 
Hooker).  This  "occurs  only,  however,  or  mainly,  in  the 
young  and  inexperienced.  When  tempted  with  cocoa-nut 
shells  filled  with  rice,  the  unwary  animals  insert  their  paws, 
fill  them  with  the  rice,  and  not  having  the  sense  to  extricate 
their  hands  by  simply  emptying  and  straightening  them,  or 
resolved  not  to  part  with  their  booty,  which  they  hold  in 
the  fastest  grip,  literally  and  figuratively  they  are  obliged  to 
drag  about  the  heavy,  cumbersome,  full  nuts,  which  become 
impediments  of  so  serious  a  kind  to  progression,  that  the 
easy  capture  of  the  greedy,  stupid  animals  is  the  result. 

The   natives  of  the  Fiji,  and  other  South-Sea  Islands, 


LIABILITY  TO  ERROR  497 

when  they  desire  to  catch  land  crabs — that  climb  cocoa-nut 
trees,  to  bite  off  the  nut,  in  order  that  they  may  feed  upon  it 
when  it  falls  to  the  ground — tie  a  wisp  of  grass  round  the 
trunk  of  the  tree  at  a  great  height  from  the  ground.  On  his 
way  down  the  tree,  after  effecting  his  object,  the  unwary 
crab  '  as  he  feels  the  wisp  of  grass,  imagines  he  has  reached 
the  ground,  lets  go  his  hold,  and  fails  to  the  bottom,'  when 
he  becomes  the  prey  of  the  ingenious  natives  (C.  F.  Wood) . 

In  many  other  ways,  mistakes  are  frequently  serious, 
dangerous,  or  fatal,  either  to  the  animals  themselves,  that 
commit  these  mistakes,  to  their  fellows,  or  to  man.  In- 
juries to  themselves,  or  to  each  other,  include — 

1.  The  self-immolation  of  midges  or  moths  in  flame. 

2.  The   accidental   self-destruction  of  birds,  that  dash 
hurriedly,   unexpectedly,    and  with   great  violence   against 
glass,  or  telegraph  wires. 

3.  Death  from  exhaustion,  or  inanition,  or  both,  in  deer, 
oxen,  and  other  horned  animals   from   the   interlacing  of 
their  horns  in  fight.     The  poor  animals  become  inextricably 
fastened  to  each  other,    so  that  they  can  neither  eat  nor 
drink,  can  do  nothing,  in  short,  but  slowly  die  of  starvation. 
The  dead  bodies  have  been  found,  with  the  horns  still  en- 
tangled ;  or  the  living  (or  rather  dying)  animals  have  been 
seen,  standing  helplessly,  face  to  face  with  each  other  and 
with  death — having  given  up  all  struggle,  in  exhaustion  or 
despair — emaciated  and  famished  to  the  last  degree,  but  yet 
unable,  from  the  peculiarity  of  their  position,  to  lay  them- 
selves down  in  their  weariness — even  to  die. 

Injuries  to  man,  on  the  other  hand,  include,  for  instance, 
the  accidents  arising  from  shying,  or  bolting,  in  carriage 
or  riding  horses. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

COMMISSION   OP   ERROR. 

AMONG  the  most  frequently  quoted  examples  of  '  unerring 
instinct,'  guiding  actions  or  operations  superior  to  those 
which  result  from  human  reason,  is  the  cell-making  of  the 
bee — that  ( busy  bee '  of  which  Dr.  Watts  sings,  and  which 
has  for  ages  been  held  forth  to  admiration  by  writers  of  the 
theological  and  moralising  school.  It  is,  however,  one  of 
man's  numerous  errors  to  suppose  that  the  bee  constructs 
its  cell  or  its  comb  with  '  unerring  wisdom.'  In  point  of 
fact  it  frequently  makes  mistakes,  constructing  cells  of  im- 
proper size  or  thickness  of  wall,  so  that  the  comb  totters  or 
falls  at  its  weakest  point.  The  error,  however,  is  usually 
recognised;  the  weak  points  are  supported  by  buttresses, 
and  in  any  further  constructive  operations  a  similar  error  is 
avoided  by  the  same  animals  that  committed  the  mistake, 
which  animals,  in  other  words,  have  profited  by  their  expe- 
rience and  exhibited  reason.  There  is,  therefore,  occasional 
faulty  construction  of  the  honey-comb  in  the  direction  of 
weakness  and  overloading.  Waste  of  material,  or  the  im- 
proper use  of  material,  or  the  selection  of  unsuitable  mate- 
rial, for  constructive  operations  is  not  confined  to  bees.  It 
is  shown,  for  instance,  by  certain  birds  and  other  animals. 
Irregularities  in  the  cells  of  bees  are  not,  however,  neces- 
sarily errors  or  imperfections  :  they  may  be  the  result  of 
calculation,  and  therefore  of  intention  (Huber). 

Bees  commit  many  other  kinds  of  error.  Thus  Alphonse 
Karr  asserts  that  bees  will  not  alight  on  the  bee  orchis, 
*  believing  it  to  be  occupied  by  a  fly,'  one  of  the  results  of 
vegetable  mimicry.  And  other  insects  seem  to  commit  the 


COMMISSION   OF  ERROR.  499 

same  mistake ;  for  we  are  told  that  this  bee  orchis  (Ophrys 
apifera)  is  singular,  in  so  far  as  it  « is  one  of  the  few  plants 
of  its  order  that  appears  to  be  perpetually  self- fertilised, 
never  being  visited  by  insects  '  (Brown).  Erasmus  Darwin 
seems  to  point  to  something  similar  in  the  case  of  the  South 
American  cypripedium,  another  orchid,  which  resembles  a 
spider.  In  a  similar  way  bees  are  deceived  by  painted  repre- 
sentations of  flowers  (Millais),  as  well  as  by  the  artificial 
flowers  of  milliners.  They  knock  their  heads  against  glass, 
the  physical  shock  producing  unconsciousness  (Watson) — 
the  result  of  not  discriminating  between  an  open  and  closed 
window,  the  presence  or  absence  of  glass.  Many  birds  do 
the  same  thing,  and  suffer  the  same  kind  of  accidents — in 
their  case  frequently  fatal. 

The  humble  bee  lays  eggs  sometimes  only  to  be  devoured, 
and  it  brings  up — ignorantly — the  larvae  of  intruders.  This 
is  a  non-recognition  by  them  of  parasites  or  usurpers,  leading 
to  their  giving  a  friendly  reception  to  impudent,  self-invited 
guests  that  foist  themselves  or  their  progeny  into  the  nests 
of  other  species  or  genera,  just  as  the  cuckoo  does  with  her 
eggs.  The  queen  bee  commits  various  errors  of  hurry,  haste, 
or  precipitancy,  but  they  are  rectified  by  her  attendants 
(Figuier). 

The  bee  and  other  animals  are  liable  to  deception  in  the 
same  way,  if  not  to  the  same  extent,  that  man  is  by  supposed 
premonitions,  or  by  semblances,  of  storms.  That  is  to  say, 
they  commit  errors  of  meteorological  prescience.  Especially 
is  its  foreknowledge  of,  and  provision  against,  rain  liable 
to  be  faulty  in  the  bee,  which  dislikes  wet,  and  avoids  it 
where  possible.  Some  worker  hive  bees  having  deprived 
themselves  of  a  queen,  and  no  royal  larvse  being  in  process 
of  development  to  replace  her,  '  tried  to  obtain  a  queen  by 
treating  drone  (male)  larvse  in  the  usual  manner,  of  course 
without  effect '  (Carpenter).  The  queen  bee  sometimes  makes 
the  fatal  mistake,  too,  of  laying  her  eggs  at  random  (Huber). 
Lubbock  gives  numerous  instances  of  bees,  as  well  as  wasps 
and  ants,  losing  their  way.  He  showed  experimentally  how 
apt  they  are  to  lose  their  way  even  in  short  distances,  and 


500  COMMISSION   OF  ERROR. 

how  they  require  training  to  find  it.  They  require  to  learn 
their  way,  just  as  a  child  or  a  man  does. 

The  bee  is  not  the  only  insect  liable  to  error,  and  we 
hear  so  much  of  the  uniformity  of  instinct  in  the  whole  class 
of  the  insecta  that  it  is  desirable  here  to  call  attention  to 
other  common  instances  of  the  mistakes  committed  by  wasps, 
butterflies,  beetles,  and  other  insect-genera  or  species. 

The  wasp  sometimes  hatches  her  eggs  at  improper  sea- 
sons— too  early  or  too  late  for  the  development  of  the  young 
(Houzeau). 

The  meat  or  flesh  fly  allows  its  sense  of  smell  to  be  de- 
ceived when  it  lays  its  eggs  on  stapelia  hirsuta,  the  so- 
called  'carrion-flower,'  instead  of  on  carrion,  the  result 
being  necessarily  fatal  to  the  maggots  (Houzeau,  *  Animal 
World ').  The  same  fly,  says  Pouchet,  sometimes  mistakes 
men  drunk-asleep  for  dead  bodies,  and  deposits  her  '  blows ' 
on  them.  Other  species  of  stapelia,  which  are  Cape  plants, 
smell  so  like  carrion  that  flesh-flies  deposit  their  ova  in  their 
flowers,  the  maggots  when  hatched  being  starved,  of  course, 
for  want  of  suitable  food. 

Linnaeus  and  Pouchet,  again,  tell  us  of  the  so-called  fly- 
catcher (plant) — the  arum  muscivorum — the  flower  of  which 
has  also  the  odour  of  putrefied  meat,  a  smell  that  deceives 
flies  or  other  insects  to  the  extent  of  leading  them  to  de- 
posit their  eggs  in  the  flower.  The  common  domestic  or 
house  fly  sometimes  deposits  its  ova  in  snuff,  mistaking  it 
for  poudrette,  the  result  here  also  being  that  these  ova  perish 
for  lack  of  nourishment  (Houzeau,  Kirby  and  Spence).  In- 
sects make  many  other  kinds  of  mistakes  in  regard  io flowers. 
Thus  Sir  John  Lubbock  remarks  :  (  Some  flowers  beguile 
insects  by  holding  out  the  expectation  of  honey,  which  does 
not  really  exist.' 

Certain  wood-boring  beetles  dig  what  prove  to  be  their 
own  graves  (Wallace).  Advantage  is  taken  by  man  of  the 
temper,  pugnacity,  and  pertinacity  of  the  tiger-beetle  to 
capture  it  (Baird). 

Foraging  ants  are  deceived  by  the  appearance  of  the  leaf- 
insect,  so  as  not  to  notice  it  (Belt) — an  error  apparently  of 
observation.  The  same  ants  in  Nicaragua  ran  over  and 


COMMISSION  OF  FUROR  501 

about  a  certain  kind  of  locust,  which  in  its  danger  remained 
immovable,  and  thereby  deceived  the  ants,  'without  their 
ever  discovering  there  was  food  within  reach.'  Leaf-cutting 
ants  occasionally  carry  into  their  nests  unsuitable  leaves, 
such  as  grass,  but  these  leaves  are  rejected,  thrown  out  again 
by  the  more  experienced,  so  that  the  error  appears  to  be 
one  of  youth  and  inexperience.  They  also  commit  mistakes 
in  road-making  in  unsuitable  places — for  instance,  across 
tramways — errors  that  lead  to  the  death  of  large  numbers  of 
them  every  time  a  waggon  passes.  But  this  is  for  a  time 
only,  till  they  are  taught  by  experience  to  avoid  the  danger, 
while  their  own  reflection  and  ingenuity,  their  fertility  in 
resource,  enable  them  successfully  to  do  so  (Belt).  Amazon 
ants  frequently  carry  off  '  empty  shells,  carcases,  and  other 
useless  objects,'  in  their  expeditions  against  brown  ants 
(Forel).  A  morbid,  mistaken,  or  misplaced  perseverance 
or  pertinacity  leads  to  wholesale  waste  of  life  in  certain  ants 
(Westwood),  just  as  it  does  sometimes  in  individual  bull- 
dogs or  terriers. 

Gillies  gives  examples  of  incomplete  or  '  bungling  work- 
manship, and  consequent  weakness,'  in  the  construction  of 
its  nests  by  the  trap-door  spider  of  New  Zealand.  '  What 
shows,'  says  he,  '  that  this  is  something  more  than  the  un- 
erring fatalism  of  what  we  are  accustomed  to  call  mere 
instinct,  is  that  instances  are  found  of  bad  and  blundered 
work  of  various  degrees  of  imperfection,  and  even  of  laziness 
and  neglect.'  •  Thus  his  attention  was  occasionally  drawn  to 
its  nests  by  the  '  prominent  un sightliness  '  of  the  heaps  of 
unused  material  accumulated  for  the  purpose  of  disguise. 

We  are  frequently  called  upon  to  marvel  at  the  '  unerring 
instinct '  with  which  members  of  a  certain  breed  of  pigeons, 
tossed  into  the  air  at  a  given  point,  distant  so  many  hundred 
miles  from  home,  make  their  way  to  their  own  dove-cot  or 
master's  house  in  a  direct  line,  and  within  a  wonderfully 
short  space  of  time.  But  it  has  been  abundantly  shown  by 
Tegetmeier  and  other  competent  authorities  that  this  faculty 
of  home-finding  or  homing  in  the  carrier  or  courier  pigeon  is 
the  result  of  careful  tuition  by  man;  that  it  is  only  exception- 
ally intelligent  birds  which  are  successful  in  such  flights ;  that 


502  COMMISSION  OF  ERROR. 

they  must  use  their  keen  powers  of  observation  of  natural 
landmarks,  and  hence  cannot  fly  by  night  or  in  mist  or 
storm ;  and  that  mistakes  are  constantly  being  committed 
by  the  animals  while  in  process  of  training,  and  even  after 
their  tuition  has  been  accomplished.  If  man  is  not  suffi- 
ciently gradual  in  his  lessons,  if  he  gives  the  birds  too  long 
flights  at  first,  and  especially  if  he  has  not  been  happy  in 
his  selection  of  naturally  intelligent  animals,  capable  of  re- 
paying his  efforts  on  their  special  education,  they  may  fail 
altogether  ;  so  that  on  the  occasion  of  every  trial  or  compe- 
tition flight,  while  certain  animals  reach  the  goal,  certain 
others  do  not — a  fact  familiar  to  all  persons  experienced  in 
the  pigeon-flying  matches  of  Belgium  or  other  countries. 

Other  animals  take  note,  and  make  use  of,  landmarks, 
and  of  those,  moreover,  that  are  set  up  by  man,  as  well  as  of 
those  that  are  natural.  Thus  Belt  tells  us  that  certain 
marks,  purposely  set  up  by  himself  in  Nicaragua  and  in  the 
Amazons  region  of  South  America,  for  his  own  recognition 
as  a  means  of  way-finding,  were  recognised  by  certain  wasps. 
They  frequently — as  perhaps  he  did  himself — missed  them ; 
but  they  repeated  their  search  till  they  were  found. 

Again,  the  stories  told  of  dogs,  cats,  horses,  donkeys,  or 
other  animals  finding  their  way  home  over  sea  and  land, 
through  or  across  unknown  districts  or  regions  of  both,  are 
not  only  infinite  in  number,  but  frequently  apparently  in- 
credible in  character.  Nevertheless  there  can  be  no  doubt 
as  to  the  authenticity,  in  all  respects,  of  at  ieast  many  of 
these  stories  ;  and  this  renders  it  probable  that  there  is  some 
basis  of  fact  in  the  remainder.  But  the  incidents  in  question 
relate  to  the  successful  exploits  of  exceptionally  clever  ani- 
mals. We  hear  nothing  of  the  failures  of  the  majority — 
nothing,  for  instance,  of  the  number  of  stray  dogs  that  are 
constantly  wandering  in  the  streets  of  our  cities,  and  that 
perish  there  from  cold  and  hunger ;  or  of  wandering  sheep 
and  cattle  that  are  incessantly  perplexing  the  farmer,  drover, 
or  shepherd. 

Much  is  said  of  the  wonderful,  though  rare,  phenomena 
of  way-finding,  nothing  of  the  everyday  occurrence  of  way- 
losing.  And  yet  there  is  nothing  more  common  than  for 


COMMISSION   OF  ERROR  503 

dogs  to  lose  their  way  even  round  the  corner  of  a  street  from 
their  master's  house — defective  observation  and  reflection 
being-  here  probably  the  cause — while  no  one  can  have 
brought  up  a  pup  to  follow  him  about  town  or  country 
without  having  been  subjected  to  the  annoying  experience 
of  having  constantly  to  rectify  its  errors  of  youthful  thought- 
lessness, inattention  or  stupidity,  including  its  loss  both  of 
way  and  of  master. 

There  is  nothing  surprising  in  way-losing  in  young  ani- 
mals. Young  hounds  lost  in  sporting  make  direct  for  home 
across  fields,  but  they  are  stopped  by  rivers,  on  the  banks  of 
which  they  sit  down  and  howl  their  disappointment  or  their 
desire  for  assistance  or  direction.  They  have  not  the  sense 
acquired  by  experience  to  use  bridges  or  boats  as  older  ones 
do  (Berkeley).  But  even  the  cleverest  adult  dogs  sometimes 
fail  in  way-finding  in  towns  :  they  betray  a  stupidity  in  this 
direction  that  is  remarkable  in  contrast  with  their  high 
intelligence  in  other  respects,  their  failure  being  perhaps  at- 
tributable to  mental  confusion  from  the  noise  of  the  streets, 
to  the  sameness  of  the  architectural  character  of  these  streets 
affording  no  distinctive  landmark,  to  diffidence,  timidity,  or 
fear  (Cobbe). 

During  the  siege  of  Paris  by  the  Prussians  in  1871,  the 
street  dogs  lost  their  usual  power  of  way-finding;  they  showed 
hesitancy,  uncertainty,  or  dubiety,  and  held  mutual  consulta- 
tions under  the  exceptional  and  embarrassing  circumstances 
(Gautier).  It  is  no  anomaly  that  a  dog  will  readily  find  its 
way  in  the  open  country,  and  as  readily  lose  it  in  a  town — 
the  reason  perhaps  being  the  number  and  diversity  of  dis- 
tracting, alarming,  or  puzzling  sights  and  sounds,  the  various 
causes  of  mental  bewilderment — in  cities.  The  dog,  moreover, 
frequently  commits  the  error  of  not  taking  either  the  easiest 
or  shortest  way,  when  it  finds  the  way  at  all. 

We  have  already  seen  that  even  the  bee,  whose  bee-line 
is  synonymous  with  a  supposed  exactitude,  unerringness, 
directness,  loses  its  way,  as  does  the  courier  pigeon  in  its 
*  races  '  or  matches.  The  swallow  commits  similar  mistakes 
(Watson) — another  animal  whose  migrations  and  other 
operations  are  generally  regarded  as  the  result  of  faultless 


504  COMMISSION   OF  EEEOK. 

instinct.  Wandering  from  home  is  a  common  expression  or 
result  of  disease — mental  or  bodily — in  certain  animals.  Thus 
wandering  fits  occur  in  the  sturdy  of  sheep. 

The  migrations  of  animals  are  also  supposed  to  be  guided 
by  unerring  instinct.  But  in  the  lemming  they  lead  to  the 
deaths  of  thousands  of  animals,  of  whole  armies  of  emigrants, 
under  circumstances  which  cannot  at  present  be  satisfactorily 
explained ;  while  the  migrations  of  fish  appear  to  be  marked 
by  occasional  loss  of  way,  just  as  happens  frequently  in  the 
case  of  migratory  birds.  In  the  latter  the  errors  connected 
with  migration  include  the  dashing  against  lighthouse 
lanterns  and  telegraph  wires,  and  shock  or  death  from  the 
concussion.  Too  early  or  mild  springs  in  northern  climates 
attract  migratory  birds,  only  to  die  of  the  later  frosts. 

The  migratory  instinct  frequently  leads  to  the  commis- 
sion of  fatal  errors — as  in  the  case  of  the  smelt — '  sculls '  (or 
shoals)  of  which  ascend  the  North-American  rivers  and 
streams  in  such  numbers  and  with  such  impetuosity  as  to 
cause  death  by  the  thousand  from  overcrowding  (Adams). 
The  salmon  both  of  North  America  and  Britain  make  many 
equally  fatal  mistakes  of  a  similar  kind — in  their  too  eager 
rush  up  shallow  waters,  for  instance.  In  caged  migratory 
birds,  at  the  epoch  of  the  spring  or  autumn  migration,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  non-gratification  of  an  imperious  instinct 
often  leads  to  self-destruction,  by  frantic  efforts  at  escape, 
and  death  by  exhaustion  or  self-mutilation. 

Nest-building  in  birds  is  another  of  those  operations  that 
are  supposed  to  be  uniform  in  each  species,  and  determined 
by  an  unvarying  instinct.  But  the  fact  is  that  birds  are  con- 
stantly making  mistakes  either  as  to  the  (1)  material,  (2) 
site,  or  (8)  mode  of  construction  of  their  dwellings.  Star- 
lings, swallows,  chimney  swifts,  and  other  birds  that  frequent 
man's  dwellings,  often  pay  the  penalty  of  nesting  in  chim- 
neys in  use,  the  object  of  the  birds  being  apparently  the 
securing  of  warmth.  Death  by  fire  or  suffocation  is  the 
occasional  result  of  the  inflammable  material  of  the  nest 
catching  fire.  But  not  only  is  there  danger  in  such  cases  to 
the  poor  animals  themselves.  Man  himself  may  be  seriously 
incommoded,  as  happened  to  myself  on  one  occasion,  when, 


COMMISSION  OF  ERROR.  505 

under  the  circumstances  above  mentioned — the  firing  of 
their  nests  in  my  library  chimney — a  couple  of  terribly 
singed  starlings  came  out  of  my  fireplace  one  morning,  amid 
a  volume  of  flame  and  soot  that  drove  me  from  the  room, 
and  destroyed  all  its  furniture  for  the  time.  The  bat  com- 
mits a  similar  mistake  when  it  hybernates  in  chimneys 
in  use. 

*  By  reason  of  their  nests  being  placed  so  near  the  water, 
the  eggs  are  continually  swept  away'  by  summer  floods 
in  our  rivers  and  lost,  to  the  destruction  of  the  breed,  in 
the  case  of  the  common  gallinule  or  moor  hen  (Montagu). 
A  robin  built  its  nest  in  a  steam-hammer  at  Hawthorn's 
engine  works,  Granton,  near  Edinburgh,  in  the  very  midst 
of  both  heat  and  noise,  and  of  danger  to  itself  and  young.1 
The  same  bird  builds  also  in  other  odd,  unsuitable  places, 
where  the  nest  is  quite  accessible  to  man — e.g.,  in  man's 
bedrooms  ('  Animal  World,'  White).  A  fly-catcher  built  in 
prickly  bushes,  and  near  a  wasp's  nest,  so  that  in  its  flight 
it  was  entangled  in  the  prickles  and  stung  to  death  by  the 
wasps  (Belt).  Watson  mentions  swallows  building  repeat- 
edly in  unsuitable  localities,  undeterred  by  their  successive 
failures,  untaught  by  experience.  The  republican  sparrow, 
too,  commits  faults  as  to  position,  including  height  (Houzeau). 
A  correspondent  of  the  '  Animal  World '  tells  us  that  she 
saw  a  pair  of  swallows  engaged  in  repeated  and  vain  efforts, 
extending  over  a  whole  fortnight,  at  making  their  nest  '  of 
damp,  partly  decayed  leaves  and  pieces  of  manure,  neither 
of  which  would  adhere  to  the  wall  of  the  house.'  They  had 
the  sense,  however,  to  use  clay,  and  straws  or  grass,  when- 
ever— after  their  many  failures — these  articles  or  substances 
were  supplied  in  a  proper  state  of  moisture  by  their  sympa- 
thising lady  observer.  It  is  an  error  of  a  similar  kind  when 
the  beaver  selects  improper  material  for  its  dam  (Adams),  or 
when  a  captive  one  constructs  a  dam  under  unsuitable  cir- 
cumstances— in  its  master's  study  or  parlour  for  instance, 
where  it  is  utterly  useless  (Cobbe,  Adams). 

Moreover,  birds  mistake  their  own  nests,  do  not  recog- 
nise them  sometimes — an  error  that  leads  to  obvious  awk- 
1  <  Scotsman,'  June  19,  1875. 


506  COMMISSION  OF  ERROR. 

wardness.  Miss  Buist  tells  us  of  cage  birds,  that  several 
mates  *  confined  in  a  cage  waste  time,  play  with  and  spoil 
each  other's  preparations,  make  mistakes  as  to  which  nest 
belongs  to  them  and  which  to  a  neighbour,  and  if  they  find 
eggs  where  they  fancy  they  left  fledglings,  or  vice  versa, 
they  unhesitatingly  toss  everything  out,  and  march  off  in 
high  dudgeon  to  occupy  another  (nest)  more  to  their  taste, 
no  matter  whether  or  not  this  be  already  engaged.  ...  Of 
course  frightful  fights  and  endless  breakages  (of  eggs)  are 
the  result.'  Here  is  indeed  quite  a  characteristic  '  comedy  of 
errors  ' — quite  an  instructive  commentary  on  the  unerring 
instinct  ideas  of  theologians.  Among  rooks  also  there  are  per- 
petual fights  and  wholesale  destruction  of  each  other's  nests 
(White). 

Field  hares  and  birds  sometimes  get  cut  in  two  by 
scythes,  reaping  hooks,  or  reaping  machines,  while  sitting 
on  or  with  their  young.  In  such  a  case  the  animals 
may  have  been  too  much  absorbed  in  their  occupation,  or 
they  may  have  been  paralysed  by  fear,  or  the  sense  of  danger 
acting  on  the  maternal  instinct  may  have  determined  them 
to  stick  by  their  young  at  whatever  risk  or  cost.  Mothers 
sometimes  interfere  so  much  with  their  newly-born,  tender 
offspring  as  to  kill  them.  They  commit  a  blander  of  over- 
fussiness  connected  with  maternal  affection.  Thus  the  female 
octopus  kills  her  ova  or  young  by  the  sheer  stupidity  of  her 
maternal  solicitude,  by  the  excessive  and  injudicious  exhi- 
bition of  maternal  love.  She  overlays  them,  and  subjects 
them  to  other  risks  of  destruction  (Lee). 

Closely  allied  to  the  subject  of  nest-building  is  that  of 
incubation  in  birds,  another  of  the  operations  believed  to  be 
guided  by  infallible  and  inscrutable  instinct.  But  birds 
make  perhaps  more  frequent  and  more  marked — certainly 
more  fatal — mistakes  in  regard  to  the  deposition  and  hatching 
of  their  eggs  than  in  regard  even  to  the  construction  of 
their  nests.  Their  errors  of  incubation  include,  for  in- 
stance— 

1.  Premature  laying  or  hatching  of  eggs. 

2.  The  selection  of  unsuitable  places  as  well  as  times. 

3.  The  sitting  upon  the  eggs  of  other  species  or  genera, 


COMMISSION   OF  ERROE.  507 

as  well  as  upon  *  dummies ' — inert,  inanimate  substances, 
such  as  stones  or  imitation  eggs. 

Hancock  tells  us  that  birds  '  do  not  discriminate  nicely 
the  colours  or  other  characters  of  their  eggs ' — a  circum- 
stance that  points  to  deficient  power  of  observation  or 
attention  in  this  direction.  Hence  probably  it  is  that  we 
hear  of  hens  sitting  on  and  hatching  the  eggs  of  other  birds, 
not  noticing  the  difference  until  the  young  come  forth.  But 
they  also  sit  on,  though  they  cannot  hatch  from,  bodies  that 
bear  but  a  faint  resemblance  to  their  own  eggs,  or  to  eggs 
at  all. 

Thus  we  are  told  of  a  cochin-china  fowl  sitting  for  some 
length  of  time  on  two  empty  physic  bottles,  and  at  last 
requiring  forcible  removal l — a  marked  instance  of  error  or 
perversion  of  the  maternal  instinct.  If  the  male  bird  of 
paradise  is  killed,  *  the  female  will  continue  to  sit  upon  her 
eggs  until  she  is  starved  to  death '  (Lawson).  Hens  may 
easily  be  made  to  sit  on  '  dummies.'  Eomanes  mentions  a 
Spanish  hen  of  his  that  did  so  for  three  days,  '  after  which 
time  her  patience  became  exhausted.'  He  also  speaks  of 
a  Brahma  hen,  that  had  hatched  pea-fowl  eggs,  as  deserting 
'her  family  at  the  time  when  it  is  natural  for  ordinary  hens 
to  do  so,  and  in  consequence  all  the  pea- chickens  miserably 
perished.' 

He  refers  to  a  pea-hen  that  '  sat  very  steadily  on  addled 
eggs  for  a  period  of  four  months,  and  had  then  to  be  forced 
off  in  order  to  save  her  life.'  And  he  illustrates  '  in  what  a 
high  degree  hereditary  instinct  may  be  modified  by  peculiar 
individual  experiences,'  by  the  case  of  an  old  Brahma  hen 
that  '  for  the  enormous  period  of  eighteen  months  remained 
with  her  ever-growing  chicken,'  a  foster  pea-fowl  placed 
experimentally  under  her  in  the  egg  state  ; '  and  throughout 
the  whole  of  that  time  she  continued  to  pay  it  unremitting 
attention.  ...  So  long  as  they  remained  together  the 
abnormal  degree  of  pride  which  the  mother  showed  in  her 
wonderful  chicken  was  most  ludicrous.' 

A  common  result  of  premature  hatching  is  the  death  of 

1  <  Perthshire  Constitutional,'  November  9,  1874. 


508  COMMISSION  OF  EKROB. 

the  eggs,  or  of  the  young,  from  cold.  Some  birds  deposit 
their  eggs  in  nests  where  they  will  not  be  hatched  (Houzeau). 
The  quail  and  partridge  '  deposit  their  young,  uncovered,  on 
the  ground,  and  expose  them  to  the  rapacity  of  every  carni- 
vorous animal  that  passes '  (Pouchet).  What  is  much  more 
strange,  though  not  so  serious,  hens  '  sit '  without  eggs  at 
all;  they  strive  apparently  to  hatch  imaginary  eggs — fancy 
they  have  veritable  eggs  under  them  (Gray),  a  singular  form 
of  self-deception ;  or  they  brood  when  the  eggs  are  not 
fecundated  (Houzeau) ;  or  they  drop  their  real  eggs  from 
their  perch  so  as  to  smash  them  by  the  fall  (Gray),  in  other 
words,  they  sometimes  select  the  most  unsuitable  localities 
for  incubation. 

Such  errors  of  the  maternal  instinct  are  not  confined  to 
birds  :  they  occur — in  the  care  or  up-bringing  of  the  young 
— in  all  classes^of  the  higher  animals.  Thus  an  old  terrier 
bitch,  when  jealous  of  her  daughter  having  had  pups,  appro- 
priated an  india-rubber  toy-dog  ( exactly  the  size  of  a  new- 
born terrier  puppy She  retired  to  a  dark  closet  in  an 

unoccupied  room,  made  herself  a  bed,  lay  down  and  placed 
the  artificial  puppy  in  the  right  position.  .  .  .  lavished  end- 
less caresses  upon  it,  and  evidently  felt  the  sweetest  thrill  of 
maternal  delight  when  her  licking  elicited  a  squeak  from  the 
mechanism  inside,  which  speaks  through  a  metallic  hole  in  the 
creature's  stomach.  She  is  inseparable  from  this  bantling, 
has  rectified  the  injustice  of  Fate,  and  no  longer  hates  her 
daughter  with  destructive  jealousy.'  She  '  continued  inse- 
parable from  her  doll  for  three  weeks,  when,  finding  it 
rather  tedious  to  waste  her  affections  on  a  thing  that  neither 
grew  nor  showed  any  signs  of  intelligence,  she  relinquished 
the  india-rubber  puppy  to  its  rightful  owners — the  children 
of  her  master — and  is  now  contented  to  see  her  grandchildren 
playing  about  her  '  ('  Animal  World '). 

Errors  of  the  maternal  instinct  also  include — 

1.  The  abduction  of  young  by  sterile  females  that  have  no 
milk  on  which  to  bring  them  up  (Pierquin). 

2.  The  mother  stork  immolating  herself  with  her  young 
— a  useless  act  of  self-sacrifice  (Houzeau). 

3.  Cannibalism  of  the  young  by  the  puerperal  mother — a 


COMMISSION  OF  ERROR.  509 

subject  again  alluded  to  under  the  heads  of  '  Murder'  and 
'Mental  Derangement.' 

Another  of  man's  many  delusions  in  regard  to  the  '  in- 
stinct' of  the  lower  animals  is,  that  it  leads  them  unerringly 
to  the  food  most  suitable  for  them,  and  causes  them  to  reject 
what  is  unsuitable  or  poisonous.  The  truth  is,  however,  that 
animals  frequently  make  mistakes  in  food-selection.  Darwin 
points  this  out  as  regards — 

1 .  Emigrant  domestic  animals  ;  and 

2.  Caterpillars,  in  which  death  results  from  the  refusal 
of  their  natural  food. 

The  young  sheep  requires  the  tuition  of  its  mother  in 
regard  to  the  choice  of  its  food.  Unaided,  it  displays  a 
non-recognition  of  that  which  is  or  would  be  poisonous  ;  the 
lamb  has  a  non-discriminating  appetite ;  there  is  want  of 
discrimination  between  the  noxious  and  the  wholesome — the 
result  simply  of  ignorance  and  inexperience.  Camels  '  have 
been  known  to  take  white  stones  in  their  mouths,  mistaking 
them  for  lumps  of  salt '  (Prejevalsky). 

Self -poisoning  by  noxious  food  is  one  of  the  many  errors 
of  youth,  inexperience  or  ignorance,  and  sometimes  of  curi- 
osity or  cupidity.  Fatal  accidents  occasionally  occur  in  the 
monkey  from  its  stealing  and  swallowing  poisonous  drugs  or 
paints.  The  young  dog  chews  everything — however  hard, 
innutritions  and  indigestible.  Mice  have  been  killed  by 
eating  *  greenbacks '  they  had  stolen  and  hoarded.  The 
vicious  '  native  cat '  of  Australia  drowns  itself  in  its  greed 
(Baden  Powell).  Montagu  mentions  a  shrike  'killed  by 
swallowing  too  large  a  quantity  of  mouse  fur  which  it 
could  not  eject.' 

I  have  elsewhere  shown  how  common  accidental  suicide 
by  self-poisoning  is  in  some  of  our  colonies,  from  the  use  by 
cattle  and  sheep,  as  well  as  by  man,  of  noxious  plants  or 
fruits.1 

In  connection  with  the  subject  of  food  errors,  it  has  also 
to  be  borne  in  mind  how  common  are  the  mistakes  arising 
from  simple  repletion  with  even  good  and  suitable  food — from 
engorgement  of  the  stomach  in  voracious  animals — a  proce- 

1   Vide  '  Bibliography.' 


510  COMMISSION  OF  ERROR. 

dure  that  may  be,  and  frequently  is,  fatal  to  life  or  liberty, 
either  by  reason  of — 

1.  The  immediate  or  direct  effects  of  the  distension  of 
the  stomach  on  the  animal  economy ;  or 

2.  Indirectly  by  causing  the  drowsy,  sleeping,  or  helpless 
animal  to  fall  a  prey  to  its  natural  enemies,  including  man. 

Many  habitually  voracious  animals  die  of  fatty  degenera- 
tion— the  result  of  over-feeding  and  inactivity,  as  in  man. 
The  immediate  effect  of  over-eating,  of  gorging  to  repletion, 
is  the  production  of  a  kind  or  degree  of  stupor,  or  semi-stupor, 
that  leads  to  the  easy  capture  of  the  helpless  or  unconscious 
animals.  The  condor,  by  its  gluttony,  begets  in  itself  a 
state  of  stupid  insensibility,  of  somnolence  or  stupor,  of  in- 
ability to  move  or  escape,  during  which  it  may  be  seized  with 
the  lasso,  or  death  itsejlf  may  be  the  direct  result  of  its  sur- 
feit. The  special  fon&ness  for  apples  in  the  cedar  bird,  and 
the  repletion  which  ensues  whenever  any  opportunity  occurs 
of  gratifying  its  appetite,  render  it  easily  seized  by  hand 
(Houzeau).  The  boa  (serpent)  is,  however,  a  more  familiar 
instance  of  gorging  to  stupor.  Loss  of  liberty,  then,  is  one  of 
the  least,  most  immediate,  and  direct  of  the  penalties  that 
result  from  the  stupefaction  and  immobility  produced  by 
food-gorging. 

Among  errors  of  food-selection  may  be  classed  cannibal- 
ism, as  illustrated  by  a  perch  swallowing  its  own  eye  when 
the  eye  was  hooked  out  and  both  fish  and  eye  were  thrown 
back  into  the  water.  Such  errors  include  also  the  multitu- 
dinous phenomena  of  morbid  appetite — a  subject,  to  discuss 
which  a  special  chapter  would  be  insufficient,  and  to  which 
special  attention  cannot  be  directed  in  the  present  work. 

Perhaps  there  is  no  more  ridiculous,  but  at  the  same 
time  common,  error  in  other  animals  or  man  than  the  vent- 
ing of  annoyance,  irritation,  temper,  passion,  on  the  unof- 
fending, unconscious,  inanimate  instruments  by  which  injuries 
have  been  inflicted.  The  man  who  stumbles  unexpectedly 
over  his  boot,  shoe  or  slipper  angrily  kicks  it  to  a  distance  as 
if  it  had  been  to  blame  for  an  accident  attributable  to  his  own 
carelessness  and  want  of  observation. 

Of  the  Maoris,  Colenso  tells  us — '  Their  keen,  uncontrolled 


COMMISSION   OF  ERROR.  511 

feelings  often  led  them  to  beat,  kick  and  strike  inanimate 
objects,  sometimes  to  their  own  greater  hurt ;  and  commonly 
to  gnaw  and  bite,  on  extraction,  a  splinter  or  thorn  which  had 
pierced  them.' 

It  is  quite  as  obvious  a  folly  in  the  dog  or  other  animals 
to  vent  their  displeasure  on  inoffensive  objects  (Mrs.  Lee). 
The  dog  bites  or  barks  at  the  trap  in  or  by  which  it  has  been 
caught ;  it  snaps  at  the  stream  of  water  from  a  syringe, 
hydropult,  or  hose,  by  which  it  has  been  drenched.  It  is  a 
common  error  of  carnivora  to  bite  or  kick  inanimate  bodies 
that  hit  them  instead  of  the  persons  by  whom  these  bodies 
have  been  thrown.  The  antelope  uselessly  vents  its  fury  upon 
the  ground,  tearing  it  up  with  its  horns.  But  very  much  the 
same  thing  occurs  in  children,  savages,  and  even,  as  we  have 
seen,  in  mature  and  civilised  man — in  the  form  of  the  angry 
kicking  or  throwing  away  of  stones  or  sticks  tripping  them, 
or  of  inflicting  blows  upon  articles  against  which  they  have 
stumbled. 

One  of  the  most  illustrative  examples  of  the  folly  of  pour- 
ing out  the  vials  of  wrath  on  unoffending,  inanimate  objects, 
is  a  story  current  in  Kamtschatka,  and  which  has  given  rise 
to  a  well-known  Kamtschatka  proverb — of  a  bear  that  hugged 
a  kettle  of  boiling  water  with  which  it  had  scalded  itself 
(Cassell).  I  have  seen  the  incident  described  both  as  an 
actual  occurrence  and  simply  as  a  story.  The  anecdote  re- 
quires verification  ;  and  meanwhile  it  may  be  regarded  as  the 
figurative  basis  of  the  moral  that  both  in  other  animals  and 
man  an  individual  has  frequently  only  himself  to  blame  for 
his  misfortunes.  It  may  be  what  is  virtually  the  same  story 
— told  in  a  different  form — which  represents  a  horse,  that 
thrust  its  nose  into  a  boiler,  and  so  scalded  itself,  pouring 
out  its  vengeance  by  furious  kicking  on  the  metal  utensil. 

A  chimpanzee  bestowed  its  anger  on  an  unoffending 
article  of  food  offered  to  it  instead  of  some  other  kind  it 
specially  desired.  A  baboon  that  had  been  fighting  with  a 
tiger,  and  was  at  last  forcibly  removed  from  the  tiger's  cage, 
and  so  prevented  venting  its  spleen  on  its  enemy,  viciously 
bit  the  bars  of  the  cage  itself  (Jamrach) — in  order  to  the 
relief  of  its  passion. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

COMMISSION  OP  EEEOK  (continued). 

THERE  is  a  whole  group  of  errors  of  sufficient  interest  to 
require  special  consideration — those  connected  with  the  con- 
founding of  resemblance  with  reality.  They  include  mistakes 
connected  with — 

1.  Mirrored  images. 

2.  Pictorial  representations. 

3.  Other  representations — such  as  animal-like  toys. 

4.  Stuffed  animals  or  their  skins. 

5.  Shadows. 

6.  What  have  latterly  been  called  the  natural '  protective 
resemblances,'  or  '  disguises,'  of  plants  and  animals. 

The  dog  or  parrot,  that  sees  its  own  image  reflected  in 
a  looking-glass,  naturally  mistakes  that  image  for  another 
individual  of  the  same  species,  who  may  become  its  rival  or 
playfellow  j  and  equally  naturally,  if  it  be  an  intelligent  ani- 
mal, not  morbidly  irascible,  it  goes  to  the  other  side  of  the 
mirror  in  order  to  find  its  alter  ego.  The  result  is  usually  a 
varying  degree  of  bewilderment,  with  perhaps  repeated 
attempts — by  re- inspection  and  re-investigation — to  explain 
the  puzzle.  It  may  go  the  length  of  experiment — pawing,  or 
hitting  at,  its  image,  and  finding  simply  a  non-retaliating 
surface  and  a  figure  that  repeats  provokingly  and  exactly 
every  movement  and  even  look  of  its  own. 

The  dog,  for  instance,  puts  to  the  test  the  exact  nature 
of  the  puzzling  image  by  one  of  his  modes  of  experimenting 
— by  sniffing  at  it — by  smell.  He  does  not  long  remain  de- 
ceived, because  he  corrects  the  error  of  his  vision  and  imagi- 
nation by  his  sense  of  smell ;  he  trusts  at  all  times  more  to 


COMMISSION  OF  ERROR  513 

the  latter  than  to  the  former  sense.  The  Mexican  parrot,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  deceived  only  when  it  is  freshly  caught  or 
inexperienced  (Houzeau). 

The  kitten  plays  with  its  own  mirrored  image.  But  the 
result  is  very  different  in  some  other  animals.  Immediate 
and  intense  pugnacity  is  more  frequently  developed.  It  was 
so,  for  instance,  in  the  case  of  a  common  Australian  parrot, 
into  whose  cage  I  caused  to  be  introduced,  for  experimental 
purposes,  a  small  hand-mirror,  while  a  nut  was  given  it  to 
eat.  The  effect  was  immediate.  There  was  no  wonder  or 
hesitancy,  no  investigation  or  fear,  no  curiosity,  no  desire  for 
companionship.  The  animal  at  once  violently  and  viciously 
assaulted  its  own  image,  and,  failing  to  produce  any  injury 
on  the  smooth,  hard  surface  of  the  glass,  and  on  the  mirrored 
image  that  reflected  all  its  own  violence  in  look  and  action,  it 
seized  the  edge  of  the  mirror  with  its  bill,  attempting  to 
break  it. 

The  fighting  fish  of  Siam,  too,  is  so  irritable  in  temper 
that  it  '  will  even  butt  against  its  own  shadow  in  a  looking- 
glass.5  The  sight  of  this  supposed  other  individual  creates 
as  much  excitement  and  pugnacity  as  the  presence  of  a  real 
opponent  would  do  (Baird).  The  goat  does  the  same  thing 
— butts  at  its  own  mirrored  image  ( '  Percy  Anecdotes  J). 

The  Elizabethan  poet,  Chapman,  speaks  of  elephants 
shunning 

clear  springs 

Lest  they  behold  their  own  deformities 
And  start  at  their  grim  shadows. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  mirror  is  unquestionably  used  by 
other  animals,  as  it  is  by  women,  for  the  purposes  of  self- 
admiration,  though  even  in  such  cases  there  is  always  a 
danger  of  the  animal's  forgetting — if  it  ever  realised — that 
it  is  looking  only  at  itself,  and  of  its  suffering  itself  to  be 
tormented  with  the  pangs  of  jealousy  of  an  imaginary  rival. 
Thus  a  siskin  belonging  to  a  friend  is  fond  of  looking  at 
itself  in  a  mirror,  as  so  many  other  animals  obviously  are, 
peering,  however,  behind  and  over  the  mirror,  apparently  in 
order  to  see  its  supposed  neighbour.  But  at  last  it  loses 
temper,  and  fights  its  alter  ego  as  the  Australian  parrot  did. 


514  COMMISSION  OF  ERROR. 

A  correspondent  of  the  *  Animal  World  '  thus  writes  of 
the  effect  of  a  mirror  on  a  parrot ;  and  the  incident  is  here 
given  as  it  illustrates  how  cheaply  and  easily  amusement  may 
sometimes  be  procured  for  bird-pets :  *  She  showed  such  in- 
tense pleasure  and  excitement  at  her  own  reflection  in  a 
looking-glass,  and  called  so  long  after  it  when  removed,  that 
I  bought  a  very  small  one  for  her  and  hung  it  outside  the 
cage  at  the  end  of  her  perch.  For  a  long  time  she  sat  with 
her  bill  touching  this,  and  making  cooing  sounds,  and  still  it 
is  the  dearest  spot  in  the  world  to  her.  She  is  never  lonely 
while  she  has  that  companion  in  the  looking-glass.  She  runs 
to  it  with  all  her  joys  and  sorrows.  She  rattles  the  frame 
and  talks  to  it  when  her  cover  is  put  on  for  the  night.  And, 
if  the  back  of  the  glass  should  be  turned  towards  her,  she  does 
all  she  can  to  set  it  right.  Moreover,  at  this  season  .... 
she  feeds  the  children  she  sees  in  there.  It  has  attached  her 
so  much  to  the  cage  that  when  it  is  being  cleaned  she  calls 
loudly  for  it,  and  runs  to  meet  it  when  she  sees  it  coming 
into  the  room.' 

Pleasure  is  taken  in  its  own  mirrored  image  by  the  gold- 
finch, the  result,  apparently,  of  personal  vanity  (Baird).  And 
other  birds  frequently  gaze  at  themselves  in  mirrors,  whatever 
be  their  motive  (Darwin).  The  orang,  too,  shows  gratifica- 
tion at  its  personal  appearance  in  a  mirror  (Pierquin). 

It  is  not  a  little  interesting  to  note  that  savage  men, 
when  first  brought  in  contact  with  a  mirror,  behave  very 
much  as  the  lower  animals  do.  Thus,  when  a  jungle  Vedda 
was  shown  a  looking-glass,  says  Hartshorne,  '  he  appeared  at 
first  to  be  terrified  and  annoyed ;  but  afterwards  looked  be- 
hind it  and  round  about  in  a  puzzled  and  wondering  manner, 
with  his  hand  upon  his  axe,  as  if  preparing  to  defend  him- 
self. Five  or  six  others  to  whom  the  glass  was  successively 
shown  displayed  similar  gestures.' 

Capt.  Moresby  tells  us  that  the  women  of  New  Guinea 
'  would  start  back  affrighted  on  a  looking-glass  being  pre- 
sented to  them.'  A  correspondent  of  the  '  Scotsman '  (news- 
paper) '  says  of  the  inhabitants  of  Fishers  Island,  in  the 
middle  passage  between  New  Guinea  and  Australia,  *  One 
fellow  having  got  a  looking-glass,  turned  it  round  and  round, 
1  Of  July  20,  1876. 


COMMISSION  OF  ERROR.  515 

up  and  down,  just  like  a  monkey,  wanting  to  see  the  inside. 
I  shall  never  forget  the  laugh  he  gave  when  at  last  he  saw 
his  own  black  face  in  it.  The  more  he  laughed  the  more  his 
likeness  laughed.  He  could  not  make  it  out.  He  imagined 
there  was  some  one  at  the  back  of  the  glass.'  The  Pata- 
gonians  do  the  same. 

But  these  effects  of  the  mirror  on  the  imagination  of  man 
are  by  no  means  confined  to  savage  man.  They  occur,  under 
exceptional  circumstances,  among  ourselves,  in  races  the 
most  highly  civilised.  Thus  Galton  writes  : — *  No  less  than 
nine  anecdotes  have  reached  me  of  a  twin  seeing  his  or  her 
reflection  in  a  looking-glass  and  addressing  it  in  the  belief  it 
was  the  other  twin  in  person.' 

Certain  startling  assertions  have  been  made  regarding 
the  effect  of  pictorial  representations  of  persons,  other  ani- 
mals or  things,  on  the  lower  animals — assertions  involving 
the  highest  possible  compliments  to  the  painter's  skill — and 
the  fidelity  with  which  he  copies  nature.  A  type  of  these 
statements  is  to  be  found  in  the  old  classical  story  of  the 
Greek  artist,  Zeuxis,  outvying  nature,  in  so  far  as  birds  pre- 
ferred his  painted  grapes  to  real  ones  !  The  story  itself  is 
of  course  a  poetical  and  complimentary  exaggeration.  But 
it  is  a  fact  that  this  celebrated  Athenian  excelled  in  the 
accuracy  of  his  pictorial  imitations  of  natural  objects  ;  that 
in  Athens  the  works  of  the  painters  were  often  exhibited  in 
the  theatre,  in  the  open  air ;  and  that  the  evidence  of  such 
modern  artists  as  Millais  shows  that  there  is  no  improbability 
connected  with  the  supposition  that  birds  may  have  pecked  at 
the  painted  grapes  of  Zeuxis,  mistaking  them  for  real  ones. 

Pierquin  tells  us  that  recognition  of  the  portraits  of 
masters,  mistresses,  or  children-playfellows  is  common  in  the 
dog .  or  cat,  which  show  their  identification  of  the  resem- 
blance with  the  original  by  licks  or  caresses.  They  lick  the 
painted  faces  or  hands  of  a  dead  master,  just  as  they  show  a 
joyful  recognition  of  the  resemblance  while  he  is  alive,  when, 
for  instance,  the  portrait  and  the  original  are  in  the  same 
room  or  stand  side  by  side.  But  they  also  mistake  portraits 
for  their  originals  (Lee). 

Such  mistakes  occur  more  usually,  however,  in  relation 


516  COMMISSION  OF  ERROR. 

to  the  portraits  of  other  animals  of  the  same  or  of  other 
species  or  genera.  The  marmozet  (monkey)  recognises  pic- 
torial representations  of  its  own  species  or  of  other  animals 
( Audouin),  identifying  them  with  the  originals.  The  picture 
of  a  cat  or  wasp  creates  alarm,  and  it  commits  the  error  of 
snatching  at  painted  representations  of  insects  (Cassell). 
The  Titi,  too,  commits  the  perhaps  excusable  mistake  of  re- 
garding engravings  as  realities,  showing  thereby  its  recogni- 
tion of  likeness  in  the  pictured  representations  of  persons, 
animals  or  things  (Hurnboldt).  The  performing  dog  Minos 
that  was  brought  to  London  for  exhibition  in  May,  1875,  was 
said  to  be  able  to  *  trace  a  likeness  between  photographs '  and 
their  originals.  Hogg's  dog  Lion  mistook  a  portrait  of  an- 
other dog  for  a  real  animal,  and  allowed  itself  to  be  excited 
thereby  to  angry  rivalry,  just  as  certain  animals  are  annoyed 
at  or  with  their  own  mirrored  image.  A  correspondent  of 
'  Science  Gossip '  mentions  a  Pomeranian  dog  that  was 
excited  by  an  almost  life-size  portrait.  In  short,  according 
as  the  portraits  are  those  of  friends  or  foes,  the  resultant 
impression  and  expression  are  those  of  joy  or  fear. 

Yarious  statements  have  been  made  of  parrots  and  other 
birds,  and  of  certain  insects,  being  deceived  by  painted  repre- 
sentations of  flowers  or  fruits.  They  are  led  into  error 
apparently  by  the  impressions  on  their  sense  of  vision  not 
being  corrected  by  those  of  other  senses.  They  are  said  to 
express  their  sense  of  the  fidelity  of  the  representation — to 
show  the  reality  of  their  mistake,  by  the  display  of  gratifica- 
tion, complacency,  self-admiration,  aversion,  attack,  fear, 
flight,  or  attempts  to  feed  upon  the  tempting  objects.  The 
evidence  at  my  command  not  being  sufficient  to  convince 
myself  in  one  direction  or  another,  I  ventured  to  apply  to 
various  distinguished  painters,  begging  them  to  favour  me 
with  the  results  of  any  personal  experience  they  might  have 
had  on  the  subject.  Two  replies  reached  me — fortunately 
representing  opposite  views — from  artists  whose  names  are 
a  sufficient  guarantee  for  the  value  of  their  remarks — Mr. 
Millais  representing  the  affirmative  and  Mr.  Hamerton  the 
negative.  The  statements  made  in  both  cases  are  of  suffi- 
cient interest  to  warrant  my  giving  them  in  extenso. 


COMMISSION  OF  EEEOB.  517 

Mr.  Millais  wrote  me  from  London,  in  May,  1874  :  '  The 
only  fact  I  can  call  to  mind  which  may  be  of  use  to  you  was 
when  I  was  painting  in  spring  a  picture  which  I  called 
"  Apple  Blossoms."  I  painted  the  trees  when  they  were  in  full 
flower,  and,  not  being  able  to  finish  the  work  in  one  spring, 
I  continued  the  picture  the  following  spring,  so  that  many 
of  the  flowers  were  quite  dry.  I  should  tell  you  that  I  had 
my  canvas  out  in  the  orchard  and  worked  direct  from  nature. 
I  was  perfectly  annoyed  by  bees  crawling  over  my  canvas 
and  distinctly  going  to  the  centre  of  my  painted  blossoms — 
those  a  year  old  and  scentless — as  well  as  the  wet  ones,  which 
might  have  had  attraction  in  the  way  of  smell,  from  oil  and 
turpentine.  To  my  mind  they  mistook  the  imitation  for  the 
real  flower.  They  were  a  great  nuisance,  and  retarded  my 
work,  dragging  their  legs,  clogged  with  white  and  pink 
paint,  across  the  canvas.  Some  of  the  blossoms  I  painted  in 
the  foreground  were  nearly  the  real  size,  and  to  these  they 
chiefly  went.' 

On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Hamerton,  writing  from  the 
neighbourhood  of  Autun,  department  of  the  Saone-et-Loire, 
France,  in  July,  1874,  remarks  : — '  So  far  as  I  have  had  op- 
portunities for  observing,  I  should  say  that  animals  do  not 
recognise  painting.  I  remember  one  instance,  however,  of 
a  terrier  which  belonged  to  me,  and  which  used  to  look  at  a 
painted  portrait  of  a  pointer,  in  a  manner  that  convinced  me 
she  was  interested  in  the  representation.  This  is  positively 
the  only  instance  of  recognition  of  painting  by  an  animal 
that  I  can  answer  for.  But  even  here  the  doubt  remains 
whether  the  terrier  thought  the  painted  pointer  was  a  dog,  or 
only  some  sort  of  animal  on  four  legs.  We  never  can  judge  ex- 
actly of  the  degree  of  observation  which  animals  are  capable  of. 
As  to  the  stories  like  that  of  birds  pecking  fruit  in  the  Greek 
painting,  I  simply  do  not  believe  them.  They  are  myths, 
which  would  naturally  form  themselves  in  this  way.  One 
spectator  would  say  that  the  fruit  was  painted  so  well  that 
a  bird  would  peck  at  it.  This,  when  repeated,  would  soon 
take  the  form  that  a  bird  had  pecked  at  it :  afterwards  that 
birds  in  general  had  pecked  at  it.' 

'  I  have   tried  animals   often   with   paintings,   but  uni- 


518  COMMISSION  OF  EEEOR. 

formly  without  success.  I  should  fancy  that  to  be  recog- 
nised by  an  animal,  a  painting  should  be  executed  on  certain 
peculiar  principles,  divesting  the  representation  as  much 
as  possible  of  everything  likely  to  puzzle  the  animal — 
such  as  foreshortening  effect,  &c.  Even  human  beings,  en- 
tirely without  culture,  do  not  always  easily  recognise  painted 
work,  and  the  more  consummate  it  is,  the  less  they  recog- 
nise it.  Millais  told  me  that  many  people  could  not  under- 
stand foreshortening  in  drawing :  so  that  if  you  foreshortened 
one  arm,  and  not  the  other,  they  would  ask,  "  Why  have  you 
made  that  one  so  short?'" 

I  have  met  with  no  recorded  instances  of  animals  of  any 
kind  recognising  in  any  way  pictures  of  places,  or  of  things, 
other  than  articles  of  food. 

Nor  have  I  facts  to  show,  whether  or  how  far  animals  are 
deceived  by  the  beautiful  artificial  flowers  for  which  Parisian 
artistes  are  so  famous,  and  which  so  frequently  impose  upon 
man,  so  long  as  he  is  guided  merely  by  his  distant  vision. 
But  the  subject  is  one  of  much  interest ;  and  the  flowers  in 
question,  like  the  mirror  and  pictures,  open  up  an  important 
means  of  experiment  and  field  of  inquiry  to  the  comparative 
psychologist. 

I  have  certainly  been  assured  by  the  vendors  of  artificial 
flowers  in  ornamental  pots,  used  for  the  purposes  of  drawing- 
room  decoration,  that  bees  and  butterflies  frequent  these 
flowers,  and  the  inference  drawn  is  that  the  animals  are  pay- 
ing an  unwitting  compliment  to  the  fidelity  with  which  the  imi- 
tator has  reproduced  nature,  so  far  as  mere  look  is  concerned. 
These,  and  other  insects,  however,  alight  upon  dozens  of 
other  objects  of  the  most  opposite  kinds  that  bear  no  sort  of 
resemblance  to  flowers,  and  there  is  nothing  at  present  ap- 
proaching a  proof  that  the  animals  above  named,  in  such  a 
case,  mistake  artificial  flowers  for  real  ones.  The  probability, 
however,  is  great  that  they  do  so.  I  have  myself,  over  and 
over  again,  been  deceived  by  the  exquisite  imitations  of 
flowers  made  by  foreign,  and  even  by  home  artists,  and  I 
have  repeatedly  experimentally  caused  similar  mistakes  in 
other  persons,  all  familiar  with  real  flowers,  by  placing  potted 
artificial  and  other  flowers  in  drawing  rooms  or  parlours. 


COMMISSION  OF  EEEOB.  519 

Moreover,  we  have  the  analogy  of  the  mirror,  of  paintings, 
of  models,  and  of  other  mere  representations  or  resemblances,  in 
favour  of  the  probability  of  the  self-deception  of  birds,  insects 
and  other  animals,  by  well-imitated  artificial  flowers. 

There  are  some  curious  cases  of  painted  living  animals 
deceiving  their  fellows.  Thus  the  skin  of  a  living  male  ass 
has  been  painted  so  as  to  resemble  that  of  a  zebra,  experi- 
mentally, with  a  view  to  deceiving  a  female  zebra  in  pairing; 
and  the  ruse  has  succeeded,  in  so  far  as  the  latter  animal 
has  been  induced  to  accept  the  attentions  of  the  former 
(Baird).  This  kind  of  experiment  might  fitly  be  extended  to 
other  species  and  genera,  and  to  other  and  higher  pheno- 
mena than  pairing. 

Stuffed  skins — and  very  inartistically  stuffed—  are  quite 
successful  in  the  capture  of  the  ruff,  acting  as  inanimate 
decoys.  Even  when  '  executed  in  a  very  rude  manner;'  not 
at  all  life-like,  moved  by  strings  in  jerks,  representing  jumps; 
simply  stuffed  with  a  wisp  of  straw,  *  with  no  great  atten- 
tion to  cover  the  straw  beneath '  by  proper  suture  of  the 
skin ;  '  rough  as  this  preparation  is,  and  as  unlike  a  living 
bird,  as  skin  and  feathers  can  be  made,  it  answers  all  the 
purpose'  (Montagu):  a  fact  that  surely  indicates,  either 
great  stupidity,  much  carelessness  in  observation,  a  very 
vivid  imagination,  or  all  three,  on  the  part  of  the  animals 
deceived. 

Stuffed  animals  are  used  sometimes  as  decoys  for  wild 
ones.  The  London  bird-catcher  uses  a  *  dummy,'  or  dead 
stuffed  bird,  to  deceive  the  male  chaffinch  (Greenwood). 

A  mother  sheep,  bereaved  of  her  own  lambs,  has  been 
deceived  by  putting  the  skin  of  one  of  her  dead  lambs  on  a 
living  one  of  some  other  individual,  under  which  circum- 
stances she  has  accepted  the  unwitting  role  of  foster-parent 
(Hogg). 

Living  imitations  of  their  own  form  and  gait  deceive  many 
unwary  animals ;  thus  the  Australian  aborigines  successfully 
counterfeit,  for  the  purpose  of  capture,  the  look  and  walk  of 
the  emu. 

To  this  category  belongs  the  usefulness  of  the  human 
scarecrow,  the  very  rude  imitation  of  man,  constructed  by 


520  COMMISSION  OF  EEEOR. 

the  farmer  and  placed  in  his  grain-field,  as  an  intended  de- 
terrent to  crows,  or  other  birds.  The  effigy  is  efficient,  or 
the  reverse,  in  proportion  to  its  artistic  execution,  its  like- 
ness to  man.  Dead,  or  stuffed  birds  are  used  for  a  similar 
purpose ;  but  neither  in  the  case  of  the  human  effigy,  nor 
of  the  dead  animal,  is  the  intended  deterrent  uniformly 
successful.  For  there  are  always  bold  or  inquisitive  birds 
that  cautiously  venture  on  investigation,  and  thereby  speedily 
convince  themselves  of  the  innocuousness  of  the  scarecrow, 
whatever  be  its  nature. 

Models  of  animals — modelled  imitations  of  animals  of 
whatever  kind — give  rise  to  the  same  kind  of  mistakes. 
The  most  familiar  forms  of  such  models  and  of  such  mistakes 
are  to  be  found  in  the  apparatus  of  the  angler,  in  his  arti- 
ficial bait,  fish  and  flies.  The  salmon,  trout,  and  other  fish, 
in  accepting  the  sportsman's  artificial  minnow,  or  fly,  fail 
to  distinguish  between  the  imitation  and  the  reality,  the 
artificial  and  the  natural ;  perhaps  because  of  haste  or 
greed  giving  no  chance  to  powers  of  observation  and  inves- 
tigation. 

Wood  mentions  a  dog  that  assaulted  a  pasteboard  cat, 
and  became  much  ashamed  of  its  mistake  ;  and  in  another 
chapter  we  have  seen  what  a  bitch  did  with  an  india-rubber 
toy,  fashioned  in  the  likeness  of  a  pup.  A  monkey  that 
mistook  a  toy  snake,  a  mere  painted  model,  or  imitation  of  a 
very  rude  kind,  for  a  real  one,  in  its  terror,  nearly  drowned 
itself  (Cassell).  Other  monkeys  have  been  quite  paralysed 
with  terror  at  the  sight  of  a  stuffed  adder.  A  correspondent 
of '  Nature '  describes  the  effect  of  presenting  a  stuffed  leo- 
pard to  a  pet  monkey.  *  It  would  scream  with  terror,  shut 
its  eyes,  and  hide  away  in  my  friend's  coat.  On  touching  it 
with  the  claws,  its  terror  was  piteous.  On  removing  the 
leopard  it  would  slowly  peep  out,  and  on  catching  sight  of  it 
close  its  eyes  tight.'  . 

The  representations  of  the  living  reality  may  be  inani- 
mate, and  far-fetched;  but  in  the  absence  of  any  keen 
observation,  or  of  any  examination,  or  reflection,  on  the  part 
of  the  animal  deceived,  such  an  imitation  may  be  quite  as 
successful  as  the  original,  in  producing  a  given  result.  Thus 


COMMISSION   OF  ERROR  521 

an  American  correspondent  of  '  Nature  '  tells  us  that  the 
common  frog  in  the  United  States  utters  a  particular  cry, 
when  alarmed  by  its  enemy,  the  striped  snake  (tropidonotus 
tama,  Dakay),  and  that  *  sliding  a  stick  after  him,  like  a 
snake,  will  produce  the  same  result,  in  a  still  more  striking 
manner.' 

Dr.  Brown,  speaking  of  the  grampus,  of  Greenland,  says, 
*  I  know  of  a  case  in  which  they  attacked  a  white-painted 
herring  boat,  in  the  Western  Islands,  probably  mistaking  it 
for  a  beluga,'  or  white  whale. 

The  kitten  is  said  to  play  with  shadows,  even  its  own,  on 
the  wall,  mistaking  them  apparently  for  living,  moving,  but 
harmless  realities.  The  celebrated  French  traveller,  Le 
Vaillant,  mentions  a  young  monkey  mistaking  a  wig  block 
for  its  mother.  The  dog  is  sometimes  deceived  by  false  or 
imitation  fire.  Dance  describes  something  of  an  opposite 
kind  in  a  toad.  He  speaks  of  an  Indian  peon,  in  Venezuela, 
'  throwing  live  coals  to  a  toad,  which  jumped  forward  at  each 
throw,  and  caught  the  bright  coals  in  its  mouth,  dropping 
one  to  take  up  another.  The  toad  must  have  mistaken 
the  coals  for  fire  flies,  and  it  was  not  deterred  from  hoping 
for  better  luck  at  each  succeeding  trial.' 

The  protective  disguises  of  various  plants  and  animals  lead 
other  animals  into  errors  of  non-observation,  or  faulty  obser- 
vation. Many  seeds  or  seed-vessels,  various  insects,  even 
huge  animals  such  as  the  crocodile  and  alligator,  are  externally 
so  like  certain  natural  objects  of  an  unattractive  kind  for  food 
purposes,  that  they  escape,  or  repulse  the  notice  even  of 
keen-eyed  predatory  birds. 

Bates  and  Wallace,  in  particular,  have  shown  how  fre- 
quently, by  means  of  what  are  called  their  mimetic  resemblances, 
in  colour  or  form,  to  the  ground  or  grass,  tree-barks,  leaves, 
or  twigs,  certain  insects  secure  immunity  from  their 
natural  enemies — birds  of  various  kinds.  Many  phasmata 
and  mantides  so  resemble  dry  sticks  as  to  be  unrecognisable 
by  man — even  when  he  is  on  the  outlook  for  them — unless 
they  are  in  motion :  as  I  found  for  myself  in  the  New  Zea- 
land Bush  many  years  ago.  The  leaf  insect,  so  well  described 
and  figured  by  the  late  Andrew  Murray,  F.L.S.,  one  of  our 


522  COMMISSION  OF  EEEOE. 

ablest  and  best-known  entomologists,  is  a  more  beautiful, 
though  scarcely  more  interesting  example.  The  crocodile  and 
alligator  are  mistaken  for  floating  tree-trunks  by  unwary 
animals  drinking  on  the  banks  of  tropical  rivers,  and  they 
sometimes  pay  by  loss  of  life  the  penalty  of  their  error.  On 
the  other  hand,  insects  sometimes  so  closely  resemble  the 
droppings  of  birds,  or  spiders  the  axillary  buds  of  plants,  as 
to  throw  birds  off  their  guard ;  thus  enabling  these  protected 
insects  and  spiders  to  escape  the  usually  keen  vision  of  their 
bird  enemies.  The  seed  vessels  of  medicago  polymorpha 
sometimes  resemble  caterpillars,  and  are  mistaken  for  cater- 
pillars by  birds ;  while  the  seeds  of  calendula  (marigold)  also 
resemble  a  hairy  caterpillar,  and  may  thus  deter  some  birds 
from  preying  upon  them  (Erasmus  Darwin). 


CHAPTEE  XXXIV. 

DECEPTION. 

IT  has  been  supposed  and  alleged  that  one  of  the  patent 
differences  between  man  and  other  animals  is  the  trans- 
parency of  motive,  a-nd  the  simplicity  of  conduct  in  the 
latter ;  their  freedom  from  hypocrisy,  or  guile  ;  their  incapa- 
bility of  disguising  their  real  feelings,  or  intentions,  and 
their  want  of  desire  to  conceal  or  misrepresent  them  ;  their 
blunt,  obvious  honesty.  Thus  Miss  Cobbe  speaks  of  the  dog 
having  a  character  '  pure  and  simple,'  with  no  convention- 
ality. And  no  doubt  such  a  description  may  apply  to  some 
dogs;  but  it  certainly  does  not  apply  to  many,  nor  is  it 
characteristic  of  the  dog  as  a  species.  One  of  the  many  errors 
of  novelists  and  poets,  indeed,  is  regarding  the  dog  as  *  in- 
capable of  deceit ' — with  '  no  share  of  man's  falsehood.' 

So  far  is  this  from  being  true  that  the  dog,  and  certain 
other  animals,  are  capable  of  wonderful  refinements  of  hypo- 
crisy and  deceit,  those  which  are  associated  with  outward 
politeness,  and  with  all  the  proprieties  of  behaviour.  A  white- 
faced  monkey  of  Belt's,  that  did  not  relish  certain  insect-foods, 
'  was  too  polite  not  to  take  them  when  they  were  offered  to 
him,  and  would  sometimes  smell  them.  But  he  invariably 
rolled  them  up  in  his  hand,  and  dropped  them  quietly  again 
after  a  few  moments,'  a  procedure  that  has  its  parallel  in 
the  behaviour  of  even  well-bred  children  with  food  they  dis- 
like. 

If  they  do  not  tell,  dogs  at  least  elaborately,  deliberately, 
and  successfully  act,  lies. 

There  is  a  refined  hypocrisy  in  the  secret  night-coursing 
or  poaching  of  dogs  for  their  own  ends,  when  they  slip 


524  DECEPTION. 

their  necks  out  of  a  collar,  escape  from  the  kennel  for 
hours,  return  as  surreptitiously  as  they  went,  resuming  then 
collar  and  their  place  in  the  kennel,  and  assuming  before 
human  visitors  an  air  of  perfect  innocence  and  ignorance 
(Cassell,  Low).  And  other  night  marauders  resort  to  similar 
shifts  to  conceal  or  effect  their  purpose,  knowing  obviously 
that  concealment  is  necessary  and  detection  possible. 

There  is  a  wonderful  amount  of  hypocrisy,  too,  in  the 
invention  of  excuses  for  laziness,  or  for  the  avoidance  of  irk- 
some work ;  in  the  ruses  of  the  '  lazy  dog,'  or  '  idle  dog,'  or 
'dirty  dog'  to  escape  duty,  or  punishment — ruses  that  include 
the  simulation  of  sleep,  repose,  fatigue,  flight,  wounds,  ill- 
ness, dying,  or  death ! 

Even  verbal  or  oral  deception  occurs  occasionally  in  the 
speech-gifted  parrot,  when  it  uses  its  gift,  for  instance,  for 
the  purpose  of  fun  or  mischief  in  practical  jokes. 

In  point  of  fact,  then,  the  lower  animals,  like  man,  prac- 
tise deceit  in  a  great  variety  of  ways,  and  from  a  great  variety 
of  motives  :  some  of  the  latter  commendable,  as  self-defence, 
the  preservation  of  life,  escape  from  enemies  or  danger, 
the  protection  or  amusement  of  the  young,  self-recreation ; 
others  reprehensible,  as  revenge,  cupidity,  wanton  mischie- 
vousness,  or  cruelty.  Illustrations  of  the  many  forms  in 
which  individual  animals  deceive  each  other,  or  man,  are 
to  be  found  in  all  kinds  of — 

Simulation,  or  dissimulation,  including — 

Feints  or  ruses ; 

Stratagems  or  manoauvres ; 

Pretence ; 

as  these  are  embodied  in  games,  practical  jokes,  theatrical 
performances ;  and  as  they  are  expressed  sometimes,  merely 
in  look,  as  well  as  more  generally  by  behaviour,  which  in- 
volves gesture,  attitude  and  action.  Only  some  of  these 
forms  of  deception  can  be  considered  in  the  present  chapter. 
But  references  to  other  forms  may  be  found  in  the  chapters 
on  « Practical  Jokes,'  '  Adaptiveness,'  and  '  Error.' 

Perhaps  the  most  familiar  examples  of  deception  prac- 
tised by  the  lower  animals  are  the  varied  forms  of  simulating 
or  feigning — 


DECEPTION.  525 

1.  Death  or  dying. 

2.  Disease  or  illness. 

3.  Disablement  from  accident,  injury  or  wounds. 

4.  Strong  emotion,  especially  misery  or  distress. 

5.  Sleep  or  repose. 

6.  Insensibility. 

7.  Play  or  inattention. 

8.  Preoccupation  or  intentness  on  occupation. 

9.  Ignorance. 

10.  Innocence. 

11.  Suffering,  mentally  or  bodily — 
the  usual  motives  for  which  are — 

1.  The  diversion  of  man  or   other  animals  from  their 
young  or  their  nests. 

2.  The  securing  of  their  own  safety  in  presence  of  immi- 
nent danger. 

It  is  notorious  that  many  beetles — various  coleoptera — 
many  of  the  Cantharidece  and  Eryotylidce,  and  Bromius  vitis 
(Baird),/et'(jw  death  in  the  presence  of  an  enemy  or  of  other 
danger,  and  obviously  in  order  to  escape  therefrom.  The  crab 
also,  like  beetles,  in  terror  or  alarm — especially  if  sudden — 
on  seizure  by  man,  sometimes  even  on  being  touched,  makes 
believe  that  it  is  defunct  (Baird,  Watson).  The  fox  does  the 
same  (Drake),  the  elephant  (Tennent,  Watson),  the  young 
turkey  ('Percy  Anecdotes),  and  the  polecat  (Low),  to  escape 
threatened  danger.  A  New  Brunswick  humming-bird  and 
the  jackal  resort  to  the  same  feint  or  ruse  on  capture 
(Adams) ;  and  similar  phenomena  are  exhibited  by  certain 
other  birds,  by  snakes  and  spiders,  by  the  rat,  opossum,  and 
other  animals. 

One  of  the  commonest  tricks  that  the  dog  is  taught,  is 
to  feign  itself  dead,  to  allow  its  limbs,  and  whole  carcase 
indeed,  to  be  treated  by  man  as  if  it  were  dead. 

A  North  American  opossum  is  called  '  the  dissimulator ' 
from  its  well-known  habit  of  feigning  death.  '  When  at- 
tacked it  rolls  itself  up  like  a  ball,  submits  to  be  kicked  and 
maltreated  without  moving ;  feigns  death ;  lies  on  the  ground 
with  shut  eyes,  and  cheats  its  assailants  into  the  belief  that 
it  has  been  destroyed*  (Audubon). 


526  DECEPTION. 

All  these  animals  must  realise  their  danger,  must  possess 
a  sense  of  danger,  must  have  generalised  ideas  of  peril  based 
on  individual  experiences,  as  well  as  a  feeling  of  the  desira- 
bility of  escaping  it,  of  consulting  their  personal  safety,  with 
a  knowledge  of  the  proper  means  of  escape,  and  the  power  of 
instantly  applying  their  knowledge.  There  are  also  involved 
such  mental  qualities  as  presence  of  mind  or  self-possession, 
self-command  or  self-control,  fertility  of  resource  or  inge- 
nuity, patience,  reasoning,  reflection,  cunning. 

The  successful  feigning  of  death  is  usually  or  frequently 
simply  the  assumption  and  maintenance  of  rigid  immobility. 
But  it  does  not  follow,  per  contra,  that  such  immobility,  when 
voluntarily  assumed,  is  so  for  the  purpose  of  feigning  death 
and  of  avoiding  danger.  In  certain  cases  the  cause,  object 
or  motive  is  of  a  very  different  kind.  Thus  the  object  may 
be  to  dissipate  fear,  if  not  to  inspire  confidence,  in  intended 
prey,  so  as  to  allow  them  to  go  on  with  their  feeding  or  other 
occupations  till  the  proper  opportunity  for  capture  arrives. 
This  is  the  case,  for  instance,  with  a  certain  Nicaraguan 
hawk,  in  order  to  deceive  his  prey — small  birds.  He  sits 
motionless  on  a  tree-bough  till  his  opportunity  presents  itself 
(Belt).  On  the  other  hand,  a  certain  Nicaraguan  locust, 
when  suddenly  surrounded  by  foraging  ants,  assumes  immo- 
bility to  save  its  life.  Such  was  its  maintenance  of  this 
condition,  such  its  conviction,  apparently,  that  its  salvation 
depended  on  its  motionlessness,  '  that  it  allowed  me  to  pick 
it  up  and  replace  it  among  the  ants  without  making  a 
single  effort  to  escape/  says  Belt.  Berkeley  mentions  a 
young  stoat  lying  still  as  death  when  her  mother  had  been 
shot,  and  the  dogs  and  hunters  approached ;  which  motion- 
lessness may  have  been  here,  however,  the  paralysis,  and 
resulting  immobility,  of  fear  or  bewilderment  in  and  from 
the  suddenness  of  bereavement,  and  the  presence  of  two 
classes  of  enemies. 

A  young  merganser  deceived  the  Duke  of  Argyll  and  a 
party  of  his  visitors  at  Inverary,  simply  by  remaining  per- 
fectly still  on  ground  on  which  it  was  inconspicuous  by 
reason  of  the  protective  resemblance  or  mimicry  of  its  colour, 
a  manoeuvre  involving  great  self-command  in  so  young  an 


DECEPTION.  527 

animal.  Mrs.  Burton  speaks  of  a  learned  Syrian  donkey 
that  fell  down  « and  pretended  to  die,'  allowing  himself  to 
be  '  dragged  about  by  his  tail,  ears  and  legs,'  apparently  as 
a  mere  piece  of  acting. 

Many  game  and  other  birds  feign  lameness,  or  other 
forms  of  disablement  from  wounds,  for  the  purpose  of  draw- 
ing the  sportsman,  or  his  dog,  from  the  neighbourhood  of 
their  nests  or  young.  They  have  a  specific,  intelligible  and 
commendable  object  in  view;  and  they  attain  it  in  the  most 
ingenious,  appropriate  and  successful  way.  To  this  category 
belong  the  familiar  stratagems,  or  wiles,  of  the  lapwing, 
corncraik  and  golden  plover  (Baird).  The  shore-lark  coun- 
terfeits lameness,  assumes  a  mimic  wretchedness — involving 
the  use  of  a  plaintive  note  (Baird).  The  partridge  decoys 
the  dog  by  similar  means  (Markwick).  The  male  especially 
trails  its  wing  as  if  wounded  before  a  dog  that  approaches 
its  nest.  The  riverside  bunting,  skylark  and  yellow-hammer 
are  other  birds  that  lure  man  away  from  their  nests  or 
young  by  the  personation  of  being  wounded  and  helpless 
('  Science  Gossip'). 

The  ruffed  grouse  of  North  America  feigns  lameness  to 
draw  attention  from  its  nest  (Gillmore).  Such  feigning  of 
disablement,  for  the  purpose  of  luring  man  or  other  animals 
from  the  vicinity  of  their  nests  or  young,  is  not  uncommon 
in  British  small  birds — in  mother  birds  especially — for  in- 
stance, the  chaffinch  ('  Science  Gossip ').  The  Duke  of 
Argyll  mentions  a  blackcap  falling  to  the  ground  from  a 
bush  as  if  wounded,  '  in  order  to  distract  attention  from  its 
nest.' 

Of  the  great  rock  partridge  of  Tibet  Prejevalsky  says : — 
'  If  danger  be  near,  particularly  when  the  young  are  very 
small,  the  old  birds  will  run  about  twenty  paces  from  the 
sportsman  and  try  to  attract  his  attention  by  feigning  lame- 
ness or  illness,  as  our  partridges  will  often  do  at  home.' 

The  stickleback  diverts  from  its  nest  any  foe  too  powerful 
for  its  attack,  using  the  artifice  in  such  a  case  of  engaging 
in  '  the  pursuit  of  an  imaginary  prey,'  according  to  Coste. 

Another  mode  of  protecting  nests  is  adopted  by  the  trap- 
door spider  of  New  Zealand,  which,  according  to  Gillies, 


528  DECEPTION. 

conceals  them  by  '  a  skilful  and  adroit  piece  of  deception,5 
whereby  '  bold  imitation  of  prominent  and  noticeable  fea- 
tures of  the  surface  landscape '  prevents  either  nest  or 
entrance  being  observed.  '  The  evidences  of  thought,  inge- 
nuity and  reason  are  displayed  in  the  selection  of  the  parti- 
cular materials  used  in  special  places  ;  in  the  calculation  of 
the  probabilities  of  certain  contingencies  happening ;  and  in 
the  apparently  careless  arrangement  of  both  living  and  dead 
matter,  so  as  to  make  what  is  in  reality  the  highest  art  appear 
to  be  the  result  of  natural  and  ordinary  circumstances.' 

In  some  cases  there  is  '  a  plant  of  green  grass  ....  planted 
artificially,  and  growing  on  the  lid.'  In  other  cases  'you 
will  find  clay  on  the  outside  of  the  lid,  plastered  and  smooth, 
or  possibly  with  an  imitation  crack,  introduced  apparently  at 
random.'  In  others,  again,  'the  skilful  artist  brings  to  his 
aid  all  the  taste  and  knowledge  of  the  practical  gardener — 
selects  plants  suited  for  his  purpose,  brings  them  from  a  dis- 
tance, and  actually  transplants  them  to  the  top  of  his  trap- 
door with  astonishingly  natural  variety  and  arrangement.' 
Or  'you  will  find  mosses  of  various  hues  and  colours  growing 
green,  and  sometimes  brown  and  dead  upon  the  lid.'  Or 
sometimes  '  this  tiny  pasture  is  brilliantly  ornamented  with 
parti-coloured  patches  of  lichens.'  Or  '  sprigs  of  lycopods, 
ferns  or  heath,  veronicas,  and  white-berry  plants  are  intro- 
duced to  correspond  with  the  bolder  herbage  around ; '  or, 
'  if  the  common  white  tussock  is  the  prevailing  vegetation 

in  the  locality the  dead  bits  (of  that  kind)  of  grass 

are  woven  adroitly  into  the  trap-door  or  round  its  mouth,  so 
as  to  deceive  the  most  practised  eye.' 

'  So,  too,  where  roots  or  woody  fibres,  or  bits  of  dead 
stick,  are  scattered  over  the  ground,  or  protrude  from  the 
soil,  this  clever  imitator  will  repeat  the  conditions  on  his  lid, 
weaving  these  hard,  foreign,  and  often  clumsy  materials  into 
his  trap-door  in  an  irregular  and  apparently  undesigned 
way.  i  .  .  .  .  Hard  seeds,  and  anything  whatever  covering 
the  ground  are  reproduced  in  their  natural  attitudes  in  these 
clever  pieces  of  deception.  In  fact,  you  will  never  find  any 
two  trap-doors  exactly  the  same,  even  in  any  one  locality  and 
belonging  to  the  same  colony  of  spiders,  except  where  surface 


DECEPTION.  529 

soil  or  clay  simply  is  the  covering The  wily  creature, 

with  his  characteristic  craft  and  cunning,  selects  what  will 
suit  (his  purpose)  at  some  distance,  comparatively  speaking, 
from  the  scene  of  his  operations  and  brings  it  to  his  home 
and  plants  it.' 

As  '  an  instance  of  how  observant  these  animals  are  of 
peculiarities  of  situation,  and  of  their  power  of  exact  imitation 
of  these  peculiarities,'  he  mentions  a  nest  that  occurred  in  a 
line  of  holes  in  the  ground,  made  by  rain  drops.  *  This  cun- 
ning observer  completes  the  series  by  adding  one  at  its  proper 
distance  at  the  corner,  which  exactly  imitates  such  holes. 
So  complete  was  the  deception,  that  though  I  and  others 
must  have  seen  this  hole  scores  of  times  during  a  course  of 
years,  being  in  a  much  frequented  and  prominent  position, 
we  never  thought  it  was  anything  else  than  a  raindrop-hole, 
and  it  was  not  till  the  accident  of  my  having  dropped  some- 
thing at  the  spot  led  me  to  examine  the  hole  narrowly,  that 
I  discovered  it  was  in  reality  a  trap-door  spider's  nest.'  He 
speaks,  in  short,  of  the  door  of  such  a  nest  and  its  outer 
covering  as  a  '  marvellous  piece  of  deception,'  and  remarks 
that  'the  simplicity  and  prominence  of  its  mode  of  con- 
struction was  the  very  perfection  of  concealment.' 

With  other  specific  and  sufficient  ends  in  view,  the  other 
artifices  of  the  lower  animals  are  both  numerous  and  varied. 
Thus,  in  order  to  the  capture  of  prey,  some  highly  ingenious 
devices  are  exhibited.  Eeynard,  in  pursuit  of  his  favourite 
prey — ducks — sometimes  immerses  himself  in  water  up  to  his 
head,  which  he  covers  with  a  leafy  bough,  and,  so  disguised, 
slowly  swims  towards  the  unsuspecting  birds  ( Watson, '  Ani- 
mal World ').  He  also  baits  fowls  with  grain,  so  as  to  render 
them  unsuspicious,  or  intent  on  their  feeding,  and  to  bring 
them  within  his  range  ('  Animal  World  ').  A  Nicaraguan 
wasp,  in  hunting  spiders,  makes  a  sudden  dart  at  the  web- 
This  has  the  effect  of  so  startling  or  frightening  the  spider 
that  it  falls  to  the  ground — that  is,  becomes  free  of  its  web, 
and  is  then  pounced  upon  (Belt). 

In  the  various  games  or  sports  of  animals,  and  especially 
of  the  young,  pretended  or  make-believe  races  and  fights, 
trials  of  strength  or  speed,  are  not  uncommon.  Puppies  at 


530  DECEPTION. 

play  and  in  fun  pretend  to  worry  each  other.  The  siamang 
has  mock  combats  with  its  child  playfellows,  and  the  orang, 
in  its  romping  with  boys,  engages  in  mimic  scuffles  (Cassell). 
Burns'  '  Twa  Dogs  ' 

Scoured  away  in  long  excursion, 

And  worried  ither/or  Diversion. 

Dogs,  too,  offer  each  other  mock  insults  in  play,  just  as  they 
do  real  ones  when  they  are  in  serious  earnest.  Young 
rhinoceroses  bite  each  other,  like  young  dogs,  in  mere  play. 

Ravens  strike  or  cuff  each  other  in  play  (White).  Mimic 
wrestling  matches  occur  in  young  cocks  for  diversion ;  young 
goats  and  rams,  like  young  dogs,  all  in  perfect  amity,  make 
pretence  of  biting,  attacking,  worrying  each  other.  Even 
young  ants  have  their  playful  thrusts  and  wrestlings  (Hou- 
zeau,  Huber),  their  play  and  pretence. 

All  this  involves  a  perception  of  the  distinction  between 
jest  and  earnest.  Unfortunately,  just  as  in  children,  there  is 
the  same  tendency  in  the  mimic  fights  of  young  cocks  or 
sporting  dogs  for  jest  or  sport  to  pass  into  earnest.  And 
the  consequences  of  such  a  transition  are  sometimes  quite  as 
serious  or  sad  in  other  animals  as  in  man.  Thus  certain 
old  regimental  horses  that  began  in  all  amity  the  game  of 
'French  and  English,'  which  involved  their  dividing  into  two 
bodies  and  taking  opposite  or  rival  sides,  ended  by  charging 
each  other  with  determination,  rage,  fury,  ferocity,  and 
genuine  animosity,  the  unfortunate  result  to  some  of  them 
being  dangerous  wounds  and  even  death  ('Animal  World'). 

In  order  to  theft,  to  the  possession  of  coveted  articles  of 
food  especially,  the  Rhesus  monkey  feigns  or  acts  sleep,  ill- 
ness, play,  insensibility  or  preoccupation  (Cassell).  For  the 
purpose  of  concealing  their  guilt,  of  throwing  their  human 
masters  off  the  scent,  and  of  disarming  their  suspicions,  dogs 
and  cats  are  capable  of  assuming  the  look  and  aspect,  atti- 
tude or  behaviour  of  innocence.  Thus  Mrs.  Burton  mentions 
a  female  bull  pup  of  hers  in  Syria  that,  after  a  sly  bite  at  the 
leg  of  a  Jew,  '  when  no  one  was  looking,  ....  instead  of 
running  away,  sat  looking  the  picture  of  innocence,'  by  both 
actions  showing  an  obvious  consciousness  of  wrong-doing 
and  its  consequences.  Demureness  may  be  real,  but  it  is  also 


DECEPTION.  531 

affected,  pretended,  or  assumed.  The  meekness  of  the  dog 
under  censure  is  frequently  affected,  and  even  ostentatious. 
It  is  apt  to  feign  misery  under  man's  displeasure,  especially 
if  this  displeasure  is  unmerited.  And  by  the  constant  repe- 
tition of  such  acts  of  dissimulation  it  may  become  habitually 
deceitful  (Cobbe).  A  mock  seriousness  is  not  uncommon  in 
the  parrot  ('  Animal  World '). 

The  stratagems,  feints  or  ruses  of  many  of  the  lower 
animals  frequently  involve  a  high  degree  or  kind  of  uncon- 
scious dramatic  action,  of  histrionic  power  or  talent.  The 
Duke  of  Argyll  has  described  the  theatrical  nature  of  the 
feints  of  a  common  wild  duck,  to  save  its  young,  involving 
mimickry  of  the  condition  of  being  helplessly  wounded. 
The  partridge  or  the  lapwing,  in  its  feigning  so  as  to  protect 
its  young  or  nest,  may  be  regarded  as  a  successful  and  con- 
summate actor. 

Romanes  mentions  a  Skye  terrier  that,  under  his  ridicule, 
intentional  and  experimental,  tried  to  deceive  its  master  by 
going  through  all  the  dramatic  action  of  catching  and  killing 
a  supposed  fly,  and  then  assuming  an  air  of  success.  But 
when  proof  was  shown  that  this  action  was  known  to  be  one 
of  pretence,  when  he  saw  his  hypocrisy  detected,  '  he  slunk 
away  under  some  furniture,  evidently  very  much  ashamed  of 
himself.'  The  dog  and  cat  go  through  the  semblance  or 
pretence  of  performing  various  other  operations  (Watson). 

The  dog  and  certain  other  animals  display  their  theatrical 
aptitudes,  however,  in  other  more  unmistakable  ways.  Thus 
the  dog  engages  for  its  own  amusement,  or  that  of  its  young, 
and  perhaps  with  its  young,  in  impromptu  dramas ;  it  enacts 
charades  of  a  sensational  kind,  with  tragic  fervour  and 
imaginary  victims.  With  a  distinct  object  in  view,  he  has 
no  difficulty  in  enacting  a  «  scene.'  Thus  Watson  describes 
one  that  acted  a  fight  outside  his  master's  door,  in  order  to 
get  his  master  to  open  the  door  to  look  out  at  or  for  the  cause 
of  disturbance — an  opportunity  that  was  at  once  seized  to  gain 
the  coveted  admission  to  the  house.  Again,  begging  in  the 
dog  is  frequently  an  elaborate  piece  of  acting.  But  it  takes 
care  always  not  to  hurt  itself  (Cobbe). 

And  further,  the  histrionic  power  of  the  dog  and  many 


532  DECEPTION. 

other  animals  is  capable  of  being  trained  or  developed  to 
wonderful  perfection  by  man,  so  that  they  act  or  play  their 
parts  on  the  dramatic  stage  in  the  same  way  that  man  him- 
self does.  Successful  animal  actors  include  bears,  horses, 
elephants  and  fleas,  as  well  as  dogs  and  certain  birds,  such 
as  the  parrot.  The  dog,  for  instance,  is  capable  of  assuming 
a  great  variety  of  characters.  He  makes  pretence  of  death, 
poisoning,  wounds,  recovery,  dignity  or  humility,  all  with 
equal  ease.  He  engages  in  imaginary  quarrels  with  perfect 
control  of  temper  and  a  thorough  understanding  of  the 
difference  between  the  real  and  the  fictitious.  He  exhibits 
suitable  feeling  or  expression,  as  well  as  gesture,  attitude  or 
action,  in  his  counterfeits,  successfully  simulating  various 
passions  or  emotions.  Counterfeiting  the  passions — such  as 
anger  or  rage — in  theatrical  declamation  or  gesticulation 
was  one  of  the  accomplishments  of  Lady  Davies'  parroquet. 
Theatrical  declamation  is  one  of  the  many  directions  in  which 
the  clever  parrot  that  can  speak  has  a  manifest  advantage 
over  the  equally  clever  dog  that  cannot  so  express  itself. 

The  various  tricks  or  feats  of  performing  dogs,  as  they  are 
exhibited  in  the  drawing-room,  or  on  the  public  street,  also 
embody  dramatic  ability  and  display.  Street  beggars'  dogs, 
for  instance,  use  all  sorts  of  ingenious  make-believe  in  their 
benevolent  tricks;  they  'act'  sometimes  so  cleverly  that 
their  performances  are  entitled  to  rank  as — and  they  some- 
times also  reap  the  merited  reward  of — a  certain  kind  of 
'  high  art.' 

The  whole  phenomena  then  of  theatrical  or  dramatic 
representation  by  animals  illustrate  certain  forms  of  feigning 
or  deception ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  all  kinds  of  feigning 
in  them  may  be  regarded  as  pro  tanto  histrionic  perform- 
ances. 

The  phenomena  of  imposture  by  animals,  on  each  other  or 
on  man,  involve  their  taking  due,  or  undue,  or  every  advan- 
tage, in  their  dupes  or  victims,  of  such  various  mental  quali- 
ties or  states  as  ignorance,  unpreparedness,  fear,  sympathy, 
good  nature,  or  other  feelings  or  emotions.  And  this  taking 
advantage  implies,  in  its  turn,  a  knowledge  of  the  value  and 
use  of  opportunity,  with  promptitude  of  action  in  rendering 
it  serviceable. 


DECEPTION.  533 

Artifice  and  artfulness,  though  they  do  not  necessarily 
imply  deception,  usually  include  some  of  its  varied  forms. 
Thus  a  horse  that  shammed  lameness,  showed  delight  at  the 
success  of  his  artifice  (Howitt). 

Certain  animals  are  systematically  trained  by  man  in  the 
arts  of  deception,  and  become  adepts,  accomplished,  therein, 
and  thereby  of  the  greatest  service  to  man  by  co-operating 
with,  or  acting  for,  him,  for  his  selfish  or  nefarious  ends. 
Thus  the  lurcher  (dog)  is  taught  the  means  of  deceiving  man 
so  as  to  become  of  service  in  poaching,  smuggling  and  brig- 
andage. He  is  fertile  in  the  '  arts '  of  escaping  detection — 
both  as  regards  his  master  and  himself  (Low).  And  the 
same  occurs  in  the  sheep-stealing  collie,  when  it  has  been 
trained  as  man's  accomplice  or  confederate  in  nefarious 
schemes  and  practices.  Again,  the  decoy  elephant  syste- 
matically diverts  the  attention  of  wild  ones  in  order  to  lure 
them  to  their  capture  by  man. 

Though  many  of  the  deceptions  practised  by  animals  are 
intentional,  they  do  not  always  or  necessarily  involve  the  idea 
of  consciousness  or  deliberation,  of  deceiving  for  a  specific 
purpose  or  definite  end.  Thus  the  parrot,  starling,  mocking 
bird,  and  many  other  birds,  deceive  man  himself,  as  well  as 
each  other,  by  the  fidelity  with  which  they  imitate  the  voice 
of  man  or  the  cries  or  notes  of  other  animals. 

But,  though  they  sometimes  make  these  imitations  in 
order  to  deceive — for  instance,  in  their  practical  jokes — they 
make  them  also  when  there  is  nobody — no  other  animal — to 
deceive,  under  circumstances,  therefore,  which  do  not  admit 
of  the  supposition  of  intention  to  deceive,  though  a  probable 
motive  is  their  own  amusement.  This  kind  of  imitation 
embraces  the  phenomena  of  ventriloquism  in  certain  animals, 
which  phenomena,  with  others  that  partly  belong  to  the 
subject  of  the  present  chapter,  will  be  found  discussed  in  the 
chapter  on  '  Practical  Jokes.' 

If  we  take  the  trouble  to  analyse  any,  even  of  the  simple, 
acts  of  deception  above  described,  and  still  more  so,  if  we 
select  for  critical  examination  those  of  a  more  complex  cha- 
racter, such  as  trained  theatrical  or  pantomimic  performances, 
the  mental  qualities  involved  will  be  found  to  be  not  only 


534  DECEPTION. 

numerous  and  varied,  but  many  of  them  of  a  high  order. 
Thus  one  cannot  fail  to  discover — 

1.  Abstraction  or  generalisation — in  reference,   for   in- 
stance, to  ideas  of  danger. 

2.  The  adaptation  of  means  to  an  end. 

3.  A  knowledge  of  what  is  advantageous  to  the  individual 
or  those  other  individuals  belonging  to  or  associated  with 
the  actor.     Thus  Mrs.  Siddons'  cat  shammed  lameness  from 
having  found  the  pleasure  of  being  petted  in  one  real  lame- 
ness (Wynter) ;  just  as  children  frequently  make  the  most  of 
trivial  ailments,  or  invent  ailments,  in  order  to  enjoy  the 
pleasures  attendant  upon  invalidism,  including  idleness,  ab- 
sence from  school,  gifts  of  toys,  and  the  creature  comforts  of 
dietetic  luxuries. 

4.  The  distinction  between  the  spurious  and  the  real. 
.  5.  Imagination  and  1    . 

6.  Imitation  |  ^  a  high  degree. 

7.  Inventiveness. 

8.  Consciousness   of  using  deceit,  as  well  as  of  being 
deceived. 

9.  Co-operation  or  confederacy  for  a   common  end    or 
purpose. 

Up  to  this  point  we  have  been  considering  deception  by 
animals,  either  of  each  other  or  of  man,  the  said  deception 
being  mainly  intentional.  But  there  are  other  kinds  of 
deception  that  claim  some  consideration  here,  though  they 
are  more  fully  discussed  in  other  chapters,  such  as  those  on 
'  Error '  and  '  Stupidity.*  These  are — 

1.  Self-deception — of  course  unintentional ;  and 

2.  Deception  by  man,  in  which  the  lower  animals  are  man's 
dupes  or  victims,  by  unwarily  falling  into  the  errors  to  which 
he  invites  them. 

Self-deception  is  constantly  occurring  no  less  in  old  than 
in  young  animals,  in  an  almost  infinite  variety  of  ways ;  for 
instance,  very  commonly  in  the  form  of  errors  of  the  senses, 
or  of  interpretation  of  impressions  on  the  senses,  which  im- 
pressions require  interpretation,  and  sometimes  correction, 
by  other  sensorial  influences,  or  by  the  judgment  and  by 
experience,  as  in  man. 


DECEPTION.  535 

Deception  ly  man,  though,  generally,  is  not  necessarily  in- 
tentional. It  is  intentional  where  his  object  is  to — 

1.  Capture  animals,  for  whatever  purpose. 

2.  Torment  them,  as  in  his  practical  jokes. 

3.  Artificially  to  create  fear,  surprise,  or  other  emotions 
or  passions. 

4.  Study  experimentally  their  mental  aptitudes. 

But  it  is  unintentional  where,  for  instance,  he  merely 
changes  his  dress,  and  the  result  is,  in  the  dog,  an  error  in 
distinguishing  even  his  own  master's  identity. 

The  successful  impostures  of  man  include  various  decep- 
tions of  the  maternal  instinct.  For  instance,  Romanes  made 
a  hen  foster-mother  to  three  orphaned  ferrets  ;  and  he  says 
he  has  heard  that  '  even  such  an  intelligent  animal  as  the 
bitch  may  be  deceived  into  rearing  a  cat,  and  vice  versa,'  if 
only  the  two  mothers  have  littered  on  the  same  day.  The 
success  of  man's  deception  depends  on  the  liability  to  error 
that  characterises  the  lower  animal. 

A  doe-rabbit,  to  which  was  given,  experimentally,  a  new- 
born ferret  to  suckle,  *  perceived  the  imposture  at  once,  and 
attacked  the  young  ferret  so  savagely  that  she  broke  two  of 
its  legs  before  I  could  remove  it '  (Eomanes). 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  feature  in  these  attempts  of 
man  to"  outwit  or  cheat  other  animals  is  their  frequent) /cufotre 
by  reason  of  the  intelligence,  wariness,  watchfulness,  or  in- 
genuity of  the  latter,  which  enables  them  so  frequently  to 
baffle  or  circumvent  his  powerful  influence,  sometimes  even 
to  turn  the  tables  upon  him.  In  the  first  place  they  fre- 
quently detect — see  through  man's  pretence ;  they  know 
when  he  is  in  fun  or  jest,  when  in  earnest.  In  an  actioned 
or  acted  threat  by  man,  their  conduct  is  guided  by  their  be- 
lief as  to  whether  he  means  what  he  threatens,  as  well  as  by 
their  knowledge  occasionally  as  to  whether  he  has  the  power 
of  doing  what  he  threatens.  Thus  there  is  no  pantomimic 
threat  more  common  than  a  man  pretending  to  be  about  to 
throw  a  stone  at  a  dog. 

Many,  perhaps  most,  dogs  confound  the  resemblance  with 
the  reality  ;  they  jump  too  hastily  to  the  conclusion  that 
what  he  threatens  he  intends  and  can  fulfil ;  and  they  accord- 


536  DECEPTION. 

ingly  seek  safety  in  flight,  or  hesitate  in  their  attack.  But 
other  dogs,  more  intelligent,  good  readers  of  human  charac- 
ter, and  well  acquainted  with  all  shades  of  their  master's 
humour,  find  out  in  their  own  way  that  when  a  man  goes 
through  the  pretended  action  of  throwing  a  stone,  he  has 
none  in  his  hand  to  throw,  knowing,  in  certain  cases,  that 
there  being  no  stones  at  hand  to  throw,  there  cannot  be  one 
in  his  hand  (Houzeau).  And  the  natural  result  of  such  be- 
lief or  knowledge  is  that  they  do  not  take  the  trouble  to  get 
out  of  his  way,  showing,  on  the  contrary,  perfect  unconcern. 
When,  therefore,  a  master  affects  anger  at  some  escapade, 
some  amusing  misdemeanour  of  a  favourite  dog,  and  makes 
believe  to  throw  a  stone  at  it,  while,  in  truth,  he  is  laugh- 
ing at  it,  the  dog  probably  realises  at  once  that  its  master 
is  'just  in  fun.' 

While  there  is  a  correct  interpretation  of  man's  natural 
tone  of  voice  by  the  dog,  or  other  animals,  they  are  apt  to  be 
misled  by  his  assumed  tones,  by  his  make-believe  anger, 
reproof  or  harshness.  But  this  is  usually  the  case  only  for 
a  time.  In  proportion  as  the  animals  know  their  master 
thoroughly,  and  are  in  the  habit  of  closely  observing  all  his 
habits  of  look,  tone,  and  action,  they  become  less  and  less 
liable  to  be  deceived  by  his  pretences. 

The  success  of  man's  deceptions  depends,  on  the  one 
hand,  on  the  unwariness,  or  stupidity,  want  of  observation 
or  reflection,  of  his  dupe  ;  and,  on  the  other,  on  the  excellence 
of  his  imitations  of  nature,  of  natural  objects  and  sounds, 
of  insects,  in  artificial  flies,  of  bird-notes,  in  his  artificial  calls, 
of  gait  and  appearance,  in  decking  himself  with  skins,  or 
covering  himself  with  herbage,  and  in  strutting,  running,  or 
moving  like  this  or  that  animal.  He  has  occasion  to  resort 
to  a  great  variety  of  ingenious  devices,  as  when  he  paints  an 
ass's  skin,  so  as  to  resemble  a  zebra's ;  or  when  he  cheats 
the  wary  spider  with  sand  grains,  used  as  artificial  midges. 
Miss  Gordon  Cumming  tells  us  of  an  Indian  ornithologist 
*  so  perfectly  skilled  in  imitating  the  calls  of  different  rare 
birds,  that  the  deluded  victims  respond,  and  coming  close  to 
the  beguiling  voice,  pay  the  penalty  of  their  curiosity.' 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

PEACTICAL   JOKES. 

CEETAIN  animals,  including-  species  and  genera  so  different 
as  monkeys,  apes,  orangs  and  baboons,  the  dog,  cat,  horse, 
elephant,  rabbit  and  squirrel,  the  parrot,  mocking  bird, 
starling,  magpie,  and  goose,  not  only  perpetrate  practical 
jokes  on  each  other,  or  on  man,  but  they  enter  thoroughly 
into  the  spirit  of  the  joke  or  fun  :  they  enjoy,  exult  in  their 
or  its  success. 

The  motive  or  object  of  the  joke  varies  in  different  cases. 
It  may  be  dictated  simply  by  a  spirit  of  mischief,  or  mis- 
chievousness  in  young  animals ;  for  instance  in  monkeys, 
which  are  proverbially  so  given  to  mere  mischief-making, 
without,  in  general,  any  cruel  or  ulterior  object  in  view, 
that  troublesome  children  are  commonly  spoken  of  by  their 
parents,  as  'young  monkeys,'  'mischievous  monkeys,'  or 
'troublesome  monkeys.'  On  the  other  hand,  a  practical 
joke  may  be  the  medium  of  expressing  a  very  refined  revenge, 
of  inflicting  a  very  condign  punishment. 

There  was,  for  instance,  very  deliberate  malice  exhibited 
by  the  Ehesus  monkey,  that  plucked  alive  a  crow,  and  left  it 
to  be  murdered  by  its  own  companions  (Cassell). 

Mischievousness  or  trickiness,  including  sometimes  a  de- 
cided love  of,  or  propensity  to,  practical  joking,  is  a  common 
attribute  of  youth,  in  other  animals,  as  in  man.  All  young 
animals  are  naturally  fond  of  fun  and  frolic  ;  and  their  desire 
for  amusement  not  un  frequently  gratifies  itself  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  feelings  of  other  individuals  or  species.  Even 
in  such  cases,  however,  mischief  or  tricks,  whether  or  not  of 
the  character  of  practical  jokes,  are  usually  innocuous,  un- 


538  PRACTICAL  JOKES. 

less  in  the  occasional  case  where  jest  becomes  earnest,  where 
what  is  begun  in  perfect  good  humour,  terminates  in  ir- 
ritability and  quarrelsomeness.  And  in  this  latter  event,  what 
is  comical  at  first,  may  become  even  tragical  at  last. 

Among  other  pre-eminently  mischievous  animals  may  be 
enumerated  the  magpie  (Baird).  Trickiness  is  not  un- 
common, as  a  prominent  feature,  in  the  character  of  some 
of  our  cage  birds  (Buist).  Mischievousness  is  a  special 
attribute  of  certain  monkeys,  such  as  the  titi,  or  the  mar- 
mozet,  which  derives  its  main  amusement  from  its  destruc- 
tiveness  (Cassell). 

Mischievousness,  however,  is  not  always  simply  ludicrous 
or  amusing  and  innocuous.  Nor  does  it  always  arise  from 
youthful  frolicsomeness.  There  is  much  mischievousness 
that  is  the  product  of  mental  perversion  or  disorder ;  much 
that  is  malicious  in  its  character,  and  serious  in  its  results. 
The  squirrel  plays  on  its  companions  practical  jokes  that  are 
sometimes  fatal  (Cassell). 

The  parrot  sometimes  succeeds,  just  as  man  does,  in 
setting  cat  and  dog  by  the  ears ;  and  in  such  a  case  it  is 
morally  responsible  for  the  result. 

Certain  practical  jokes  involve  various  refinements  of 
cruelty,  and  an  obvious  delight  in  witnessing  the  effects  of 
cruelty,  the  torture  of  victims.  Crows  enjoy  the  impotent 
fury  of  their  victims  (Hall).  Monkeys  show  the  'keenest 
delight  in  torturing  others,  simply  for  torturing  sake,'  put- 
ting themselves  to  great  trouble  in  order  to  gratify  their 
instinct  of  cruelty.  '  A  naturalist,  who  had  lived  a  long  time 
in  India,  told  me  that  he  has  not  unfrequently  seen  mon- 
keys feign  death  for  an  hour  or  two  at  a  time,  for  the  express 
purpose  of  inducing  crows  and  other  carnivorous  birds  to 
approach  within  grasping  distance ;  and  when  one  of  the 
birds  was  caught,  the  delighted  monkey  put  it  to  all  kinds 
of  agonies,  of  which  plucking  alive  seemed  to  be  a  favourite ' 
('  Nature ').  The  parrot,  too,  enjoys  the  punishment  of  an- 
other animal,  perhaps  for  its  misdemeanour  or  practical 
joke  (« Animal  World '). 

It  does  not  follow  that  there  is  always,  though  there 
must  be  sometimes,  realisation,  or  appreciation  of  the  kind 


PRACTICAL  JOKES.  539 

or  amount  of  pain,  bodily  or  mental,  that  a  victim  is  under- 
going. Thus  an  American  correspondent  of  '  Nature ' 
describes  a  playful  kitten  as  amusing  itself  by  teasing  a  frog, 
'  seemingly  for  the  purpose  of  hearing  him  cry.'  Here  there 
is  a  selfish  amusement  at  the  expense  of  suffering  in  another. 
But  it  is  not  at  all  likely  that  the  kitten  had  any  idea  that  it 
was  inflicting  pain,  and  that  a  cry  was  the  natural  expres- 
sion of  pain.  Indeed,  the  simple  teasing,  or  tormenting  of 
animals  by  each  other,  though  provocative  of  displays  of 
temper,  combativeness,  retaliation,  seldom  involve  the  idea 
that  pain  is  being  inflicted  and  suffered. 

Lady  Verney  writes  of  apes  and  monkeys,  as  seen  at  the 
Zoological  Gardens,  London:  <An  ape  will  push  a  bit  of 
apple  or  bun  through  his  bars,  just  within  reach  of  his 
neighbour,  and  draw  it  back  again  before  he  can  get  at  it — 
going  on  for  an  hour  at  a  time,  for  the  mere  delight  of  seeing 
the  anger  and  distress  and  longing  of  the  poor  little  victim. 
No  other  beast  seems  to  have  the  wit,  or  the  desire,  to  enjoy 
evil  in  this  manner.'  Here  the  pain  inflicted  is  necessarily 
mental;  but  it  is  no  less  keen  on  that  account.  Pain  of 
a  purely  bodily  kind  is  produced,  on  the  other  hand,  by  a 
monkey  driving  a  stick  into  the  eye  of  a  crocodile.  '  He 
went  to  work  with  all  the  caution  and  seriousness  of  an  old 
lawyer ;  and  when  he  had  inflicted  the  joke,  he  hauled  him- 
self aloft  with  an  alacrity  that  showed  he  could  form  a  very 
good  estimation  of  the  danger  which  he  ran '  (Lawson). 

The  success  of  practical  jokes  implies  deception  of,  and  error 
in  the  victims  or  dupes.  Triumph,  exultation,  or  delight, 
which  is  sometimes  so  evident,  and  is  expressed  in  various 
ways,  involves  a  clear  perception  of  the  nature  of  the  trick 
or  joke,  and  a  consciousness  of  its  success.  Miss  Cobbe  de- 
scribes the  pseans  in  chorus  of  a  flock  of  geese  at  the  success 
of  a  practical  joke  of  theirs  on  a  number  of  pigs.  The 
Rhesus  monkey  shows  its  triumph  by  chattering  and  grin- 
ning (Cassell).  The  parrot  appreciates  its  own  jokes,  shows 
joy  at  least  at  its  success  in  mischief  (Houzeau,  Watson). 
The  elephant  also  enjoys  its  practical  joking,  that  is,  witness- 
ing the  effects  thereof  (Lee).  •  The  raven  exhibits,  as  so  many 
other  birds  do,  delight  at  the  success  of  its  mimicry  (Low). 


540  PRACTICAL  JOKES. 

Certain  animals  require  sympathy  in  their  joys,  as  in  their 
'  griefs ;  and  possibly  their  love  of  admiration  in  some 
cases  must  be  gratified.  Thus  the  orang  plays  pranks  and 
delights  in  them  ;  but  only  when  it  has  spectators  of  its 
tricks  (Cassell),  when  approval  or  applause  would  appear  to 
be  taken  for  granted. 

Some  practical  jokes  of  the  lower  animals  are  apt  to  be 
as  serious  to  man  as  to  each  other.  Thus  the  'Animal 
World '  tells  us  of  a  sheep,  whose  fondness  for  practical  fun 
led  it  to  watch  for  unwary  human  bye-passers  from  the  win- 
dow of  the  second  storey  of  a  granary :  and  when  one  was 
passing  immediately  underneath  the  window,  this  eccentric 
animal  would  drop  itself  suddenly  upon  him,  with  all  its 
weight  of  course.  In  this  case  the  mischief  was  gratuitous. 
But  in  other  cases  the  practical  jokes  of  animals  take  the  very 
appropriate  form  of  the  punishment  of  man  for  his  misdeeds 
— perhaps  for  his  practical  jokes  on  them.  The  success  and 
appropriateness  of  such  punishment  illustrate  man's  own 
proverbs,  or  sayings  about  *  the  biter  bit,'  *  diamond  cut  dia- 
mond,' or  *more  than  his  match.'  Thus  the  elephant,  dog 
and  parrot  sometimes  inflict  ingenious  forms  of  punishment 
well  deserved  on  boys  or  adults  who  have  teased  them. 

The  mode  in  which  practical  jokes  are  perpetrated  by 
different  species  and  genera  varies  greatly ;  and  this  variation 
involves  great  ingenuity,  devising  the  most  appropriate 
means  in  each  case.  An  orang  in  a  ship's  galley,  '  in  order  to 
play  the  cook  a  trick,  used  to  turn  the  water  cocks '  (Biich- 
ner). 

One  of  the  commonest  modes  of  perpetrating  practical 
jokes  is  mimicry,  imitation  of  the  songs,  cries,  calls,  voice- 
sounds  of  other  animals,  including  man.  But  all  mimicry 
does  not  involve  mockery — the  intention  to  *  make  a  fool '  of 
another ;  to  lead  it  into  some  mishap,  to  deceive  it  to  its 
hurtj  and  to  enjoy  itself  at  the  victim's  expense.  '  Even  in 
the  same  animal,  for  instance  the  mocking  bird  itself,  there 
may  be  either,  or  both,  harmless  mimicry,  and  deliberate 
mockery.  And  the  mockery  employed  may  involve  genuine 
derision,  studied  insult.  The  mocking  bird  mocks,  as  well 
as  mimics ;  it  engages  in  deception,  intentional,  as  well  as 


PRACTICAL  JOKES.  541 

accidental ;  it  possesses  a  sense  of  the  ludicrous,  or  of  fun  ; 
and  it  indulges  in  genuine  practical  jokes,  just  as  the  parrot 
more  frequently  and  successfully  does. 

One  of  the  forms  again  both  of  mimicry  and  mockery  is 
ventriloquism  in  certain  birds.  Professor  Sir  Wyville  Thom- 
son informs  us  how  a  Brazilian  parrot  succeeded  in  making 
himself  and  a  railway  party,  of  which  he  was  a  member, 
believe  they  had  run  over  a  child.  '  Suddenly  the  agonised 
cries  of  a  child,  followed  by  low  meanings,  rang  out  from 
under  the  wheels.  A  jerk  of  the  drag  pulled  the  car  up, 
and  nearly  threw  us  out  of  our  seats.  We  jumped  out  and 
looked  nervously  under  the  truck ;  but  there  was  no  child 
there.'  Nor  was  the  apparent  accident  explained,  till  '  a 
large  green  parrot,  in  a  cage  close  beside  us,  went  through, 
no  doubt,  another  of  his  best  performances  in  the  shape  of  a 
loud  mocking  laugh.' 

A  male  chat,  described  by  Dr.  Abbott,  not  only  imitated 
successfully  the  notes,  cries,  groans,  squeaks,  or  calls  of 
different  animals,  including  other  birds,  the  squirrel,  and 
the  yelping  bark  of  the  puppy;  not  only  could  it  mimic  the 
'  dull  creaking  of  a  rusty  sign-board,'  and  the  '  cries  of  some 
poor  creature  in  distress  ; '  but  all  this  '  mimicry  of  uncouth 
sounds '  could  be  uttered  as  if  by  another  individual  in  a 
distant  tree,  *  throwing  his  voice  in  every  direction,  other 
than  towards  the  nest ; '  so  that  his  notes  appeared  as  if 
coming  '  from  a  point  several  yards  distant.'  In  this  case  the 
animal  was  *  thoroughly  conscious  of  its  ventriloquial  power  ' 
and  its  effects — deception  thereby ;  and  it  '  trusted  far  more 
to  it  than  to  flight,  to  avoid  and  mislead  its  enemies.'  It 
•was  not  surprising  that  it  succeeded  in  deceiving  the  natu- 
ralist-observer, as  well  as  birds  of  various  kinds,  that 
approached  its  nest. 

The  artificial  production  of  consternation,  alarm,  fear 
or  fright  is  one  of  the  common  modes  resorted  to  by  the 
parrot  and  other  animals,  of  playing  their  tricks,  pranks,  or 
jokes  (Watson). 

The  practical  jokes  of  man  on  other  animals  ;  the  various 
tricks  that  he  plays  upon  them,  mainly  for  the  purposes  of 
•what  he  considers  'sport,'  may  be  fitly  considered  here. 


542  PKACTICAL  JOKES. 

Such  jokes  take  advantage  of  certain  mental  or  moral  pecu- 
liarities, or  individualities,  of  the  animals  he  selects  as  the 
subject  of  his  experiments,  the  victims  too  frequently  of  his 
cruelty.  These  mostly  mental  peculiarities  include,  for  in- 
stance, irritability,  pugnacity,  liability  to  fear  and  panic, 
ignorance,  unsuspiciousness,  confidence,  curiosity,  greed, 
love  of  alcohol  or  other  articles  of  man's  food  or  drink,  or 
known  partiality  to  certain  natural  foods.  But  while  fully 
appreciating,  and  frequently  taking  undue  advantage  of  such 
mental  qualities,  man  is  too  apt  to  overlook  certain  others, 
and  his  oversight  leads  him  to  be  forgetful  of  the  possible 
results  to  himself,  as  well  as  to  his  animal  dupes,  of  his  ill- 
timed  pleasantries. 

Thus  he  gives  his  victims  no  credit  for  their  memory  of 
injury,  their  sense  of  indignation  at  affront  or  abuse,  the 
keenness  and  the  impetuosity  of  their  passions,  their  thirst 
for  revenge,  their  power  of  selecting  the  proper  means  of 
inflicting  condign  punishment  for  offence,  their  capacity  to 
impute  blame  where  it  is  deserved,  their  patience  in  waiting 
for,  and  their  sagacity  in  seizing  opportunity,  their  promp- 
titude of  action  when  the  watched-for  opportunity  arrives. 

Hence  the  fatal  injuries,  of  which  we  so  frequently  read, 
inflicted  by  horses,  elephants  and  dogs,  or  by  various  me- 
nagerie animals,  on  those  persons  who  have  wilfully  tor- 
mented them.  Thus  we  are  told  of  a  boy,  killed  outright 
by  an  elephant,  as  the  effect  of  teasing  it  ('Animal  World'). 
When  men  or  boys  give  elephants  stones  instead  of  expected 
nuts,  unsuspiciousness  or  inexperience  of  man's  treachery 
may  lead  the  sagacious  animal  into  error  for  the  moment. 
But  discovery  of  the  deception  is  very  speedy ;  the  animal's 
anger  or  resentment  is  unmistakably  exhibited ;  and  man's 
stupidity — for  he  may  have  erred  but  in  thoughtlessness, 
not  in  cruel  intention — has  thus  stimulated  his  victim  to 
revenge  by  murder. 

Man's  pleasantries  or  practical  jokes  are  at  all  times 
liable  to  be  misunderstood  and  resented,  even  by  animals 
that  are  familiar  with  the  player  of  the  joke.  Though,  as 
has  been  already  shown,  certain  animals  can,  and  do  dis- 
tinguish between  jest,  joke,  fun,  frolic,  pretence,  and  earnest, 


PRACTICAL  JOKES.  543 

reality,  seriousness,  there  are  others  that  naturally  confound 
the  two ;  or  they  may  be  at  a  loss,  as  children,  and  even  men 
so  frequently  are,  to  discriminate  between  them.  There  is 
apt  to  result,  in  such  cases,  especially  in  touchy,  testy,  cap- 
tive animals,  a  dangerous  and  instantaneous  loss  of  temper 
and  patience,  a  sense  of  irritation  likely  to  lead  to  acts  of 
retaliation  or  punishment. 

Repeated  acts  of  annoyance  are  of  course  correspondingly 
more  liable  to  beget  furiosity.  So  that  there  is  always 
danger  to  man  himself  from  his  tormenting,  teasing,  irri- 
tating, annoying,  torturing  or  tempting  even  such  docile 
much-suffering  animals  as  the  elephant,  horse  and  dog,  and 
still  more  so  the  captious  and  captive  inmates  of  menageries 
or  Zoological  Gardens,  or  of  drawing-room  aviaries. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  consequences  to  the  animals  ex- 
perimented on  are  sometimes  equally  unexpected  and  unin- 
tended by  man.  Thus  a  wild  forest  bear,  to  which  some 
American-Indian  huntsmen  fastened  a  buffalo  bell,  was 
*  found  dead  of  fright  and  starvation '  fifty  miles  distant 
from  the  place  where  the  obnoxious  and  alarmingly  sonorous 
instrument  was  attached  to  its  neck,  as  an  official  informs 
us. 

Some  of  man's  modes  of  capture  of  the  lower  animals  have 
all  the  aspect  and  effect  of  practical  jokes.  When,  for  in- 
stance, he  wishes  to  capture  old  wary  monkeys,  he  first  gets 
hold,  sometimes,  of  a  few  unwary  young  ones,  paints  them 
over  with  a  mixture  of  treacle  and  tartar  emetic,  and  then 
sets  them  free.  The  joyful  parents  lick  their  recovered  off- 
spring, with  the  natural  result  that  they  suffer,  as  man  would 
do  under  similar  circumstances,  from  a  prostrating  nausea 
that  renders  them  an  easy  prey  to  man  (Cassell).  He  may 
have  other  objects  in  view  in  the  perpetration  of  his  practical 
jokes  on  other  animals ;  for  instance,  when  his  purpose  is  to 
purchase  the  silence  of  a  barking  dog  or  cackling  goose,  that 
would  otherwise  be  a  tell-tale  to  his  nocturnal  burglary  or 
poaching. 


RECENT  PUBLICATIONS. 

The  Data  of  Ethics. 

Being  the  First  Part  of  the  "  Principles  of  Morality."  By  HERBERT  SPEN- 
CER. 1  vol.,  12mo.  Cloth.  Price,  $1.50. 

Mr.  Spencer's  main  purpose  is  to  ascertain  and  describe  the  objective  qualities  of  right 
conduct  the  external  signs  of  the  highest  virtue,  and  to  show  their  coincidence  with  the 
results  of  progressive  evolution.  This  he  has  done  in  the  course  of  the  profound  and  ex- 
haustive analysis,  of  which  he  is  eo  consummate  a  master,  of  vigorous  but  singularly  lucid 
reasonings,  and  of  ample  and  impressive  illustrations  from  every  department  of  Nature." 

Early  Christian.  Literature^Primers. 

Edited  by  Professor  GEORGE  PARK  FISHER,  D.  D. 

I.  The  Apostolic  Fathers,  ar\d  the  Apologists,  A.  D.  95-180.     By 
the  Rev.  GEORGE  A.  JACKSON.     16mo.     Cloth.    Price,  60  cents. 

The  "  Early  Christian  Literature  Primers  "  will  embodv,  in  a  few  small  and  inexpensive 
volumes,  the  substance  of  the  characteristic  works  of  the  great  Fathers  of  the  Church. 
The  plan  recognizes  four  groups  of  works : 

1.  The  Apostolic  Fathers  and  the  Apologists,  A.  D.  95-180.    (Now  ready.) 

2.  The  Fathers  of  the  Third  Century,  A.  D.  180-325. 

3.  The  Post-Nicene  Greek  Fathers,  A.  D.  325-750. 

4.  The  Post-Nicene  Latin  Fathers,  A.  D.  325-590. 

These  groups  are  to  be  embraced  in  four  books.  In  the  first  book  are  given  exact  trans- 
lations of  the  principal  works  of  the  Apostolic  Fathers  and  the  Apologists,  preceded  hy 
introdotions  upon  the  writings  of  the  period,  and  by  sketches  of  the  several  authors. 
Nearly  every  known  author  of  the  period  is  mentioned,  and  his  place  pointed  ont. 

The  Development  of  English.  Literature. 

The  Old  English  Period.  By  Brother  AZAKIAS,  Professor  of  English  Litera- 
ture in  Rock  Hill  College,  Maryland.  1  vol.,  12mo,  214  pages.  Cloth. 
Price,  $1.25. 

IV. 

The  Life  of  His  Royal  Highness  the  Prince  Consort. 

By  THEODORE  MARTIN.  With  Portraits.  Vol.  IV.  1  vol.,  12mo.  Cloth. 
Price,  $2.00. 

Essays  from  the  "North.  American  Review." 

Edited  by  ALLEN  THORNDIKE  RICE.     One  vol.,  12mo,  482  pages.     Cloth, 

price,  $2.00. 

"The  Essays  collected  in  this  volume  may,  without  pretension,  be  truly  said  to  repre- 
sent the  growth  of  native  thought  and  scholarship  in  the  United  States  from  the  close  of 
the  second  war  with  Great  Britain  down  to  the  close  of  the  great  Civil  War.  In  few  libra- 
ries, public  or  private,  can  complete  sets  of  the  '  North  American  Review  '  be  found,  and 
Ibe  beet  thoushts  and  the  freshest  activity  of  two  generations  of  conspicuous  American 
writers  have  thus  remained  inaccessible  to  the  great  mass  of  the  American  reading  pub- 
lic."— Extract  from  Preface. 

VI. 

The  Spectator. 

A  new  edition  carefully  revised.  With  Prefaces  Historical  and  Biographi- 
cal, by  ALEXANDER  CHALMERS,  A.  M. 

This  is  an  edition  de  luxe  of"  The  Spectator,"  being  printed  in  large  type,  on  choice 
paper,  in  perfect  8tyle,  and  bound  in  vellum  cloth  with  <rilt  top,  after  the  manner  now  eo 
popular  with  standard  books.  In  six  volumes,  8vo.  Cloth.  Price,  $12.00. 

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WORKS  OF  HENRY  MAUDSLEY,  ID, 

Fellow  of  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians ;  Professor  of  Medical  Jurisprudence  In  TJni 
versity  College,  London. 


Body  and  Mind: 

An  Inquiry  into  their  Connection  and  Mutual  Influence,  specially  in  refer- 
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Physiology  of  the  Mind. 

New  edition.  1vol.,  12mo.  Cloth,  $2.00.  CONTENTS:  Chapter  I.  On  the 
Method  of  the  Study  of  the  Mind. — II.  The  Mind  and  the  Nervous  System. 
— III.  The  Spinal  Cord,  or  Tertiary  Nervous  Centres ;  or,  Nervous  Centres 
of  Reflex  Action. — IV.  Secondary  Nervous  Centres ;  or  Sensory  Ganglia ; 
Sensorium  Commune. — V.  Hemispherical  Ganglia;  Cortical  Cells  of  the 
Cerebral  Hemispheres  ;  Ideational  Nervous  Centres ;  Primary  Nervous  Cen- 
tres ;  Intellectorium  Commune.— VI.  The  Emotions. —VII.  Volition.— 
VIII.  Motor  Nervous  Centres,  or  Motorium  Commune  and  Actuation  or 
Effection. — IX.  Memory  and  Imagination. 

Pathology  of  the  Mind. 

1  vol.,  12mo.  Cloth,  $2.00.  CONTENTS:  Chapter  I.  On  the  Causes  of 
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Insanity. 

Responsibility  ir\  Mental  Disease. 

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"The  author  is  at  home  in  his  subject,  and  presents  his  views  in  an  almost  singularly 
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"It  is  a  work  profound  and  searching,  and  abounds  in  wisdom." — Pittsburg  Commer- 
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"  Handles  the  important  topic  with  masterly  power,  and  its  suggestions  are  practical 
and  of  great  value."— Providence  Frees. 


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THE 

EXPERIMENTAL  SCIENCE  SERIES. 


In  neat  12mo  volumes,  bound  in  cloth,  fully  illus- 
trated.    Price  per  volume,  $1.00. 


THIS  series  of  scientific  books  for  boys,  girls,  and  students  of  every  age,  was 
designed  by  Professor  Alfred  M.  Mayer,  Ph.  D.,  of  the  Stevens  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology, Hoboken,  New  Jersey.  Every  book  is  addressed  directly  to  the  young 
student,  and  he  is  taught  to  construct  his  own  apparatus  out  of  the  cheapest  and 
most  common  materials  to  be  found.  Should  the  reader  make  all  the  apparatus 
described  in  the  first  book  of  this  series,  he  will  spend  only  $12.40. 


NOW  READY: 

L— LIGHT : 

A  Series  of  Simple,  Entertaining,  and  Inexpensive  Experiments  in  the  Phenomena 
of  Light,  for  Students  of  every  Age. 

By  ALFRED  M.  MA  YER  and  CHARLES  BARNARD. 

IL— SOUND : 

A  Series  of  Simple,  Entertaining,  and  Inexpensive  Experiments  in  the  Phenomena 
of  Sound,  for  the  Use  of  Students  of  every  Age. 

By  ALFRED  MARSHALL  MA  YER, 

Professor  of  Physics  in  the  Stevens  Institute  of  Technology ;  Member  of  the  National  Academy 
of  Sciences;   of  the  American  Philosophical    Society,  Philadelphia;   of  the  American 
Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  Boston;  of  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences; 
of  the  German  Astronomical  Society;    of  the  American  Otological  Soci- 
ety ;  and  Honorary  Member  of  the  New  York  Ophthalmological 
Society. 

IN  ACTIVE  PREPARATION: 

III.  Vision  and  the  Nature  of  Light. 

IV.  Electricity  and  Magnetism. 
V.  Heat. 

VI.  Mechanics. 
VII.  Chemistry- 

VIII.  The  Art  of  experimenting  with  Cheap   and  Simple   In- 
struments. 


D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  PUBLISHERS,  1,  3,  &  5  BOND  STREET,  NEW  YORK, 


THE  EXPERIMENTAL  SCIENCE  SERIES. 


LIGHT: 

A  Series  of  Simple,  Entertaining,  and  Inexpensive  Experiments  in  the  Phe- 
nomena of  Light,  for  the  Use  of  Students  of  Every  Age. 


By  ALFRED   M.  MAYER  and  CHARLES  BARNARD. 


NEAT  12no  VOLTJMK,  FULLY  ILLUSTRATED.  .  CLOTH,  PRICE,  $1.00. 


"  Professor  Mayer  has  invented  a  series  of  experiments  in  Light  which  are  described 
by  Mr.  Barnard.  Nothing  is  more  necessary  for  sound  teaching  than  experiments  made 
by  the  pupil,  and  this  book,  by  considering  the  difficulty  of  costly  apparatus,  has  rendered 
an  important  service  to  teacher  and  student  alike.  It  deals  with  the  sources  of  light, 
reflection,  refraction,  and  decomposition  of  light.  The  experiments  are  extremely  simple 
and  well  suited  to  young  people." — Westminster  Review. 

"This  work  describes,  in  simple  language,  a  number  of  experiments  illustrating  the 
principal  properties  of  light,  by  means  of  a  beam  of  sunlight  admitted  into  a  dark  room, 
and  various  contrivances.  The  experiments  are  highly  ingenious,  and  the  young  student 
can  not  fail  to  learn  a  great  deal  from  the  book.  As  an  example  of  the  effective  experi- 
mental method  employed,  we  may  specially  mention  the  device  for  illustrating  the  refrac- 
tion of  light.  This  book  is  specially  designed  '  to  give  to  every  teacher  and  scholar  the 
knowledge  of  the  art  of  experimenting.1  "—The  Quarterly  Journal  of  Science  (London). 

"A  singularly  excellent  little  hand-book  for  the  use  of  teachers,  parents,  and  children. 
The  book  is  admirable  both  in  design  and  execution.  The  experiments  for  which  it  pro- 
vides are  so  simple  that  an  intelligent  boy  or  girl  can  easily  make  them,  and  so  beautiful 
and  interesting  that  even  the  youngest  children  must  enjoy  the  exhibition.  The  experi- 
ments here  described  are  abundantly  worth  all  that  they  cost  in  money  and  time  in  any 
family  where  there  are  boys  and  girls  to  be  entertained.''—.?^  York  Evening  Post. 

"The  experiments  are  capitally  selected,  and  equally  as  well  described.  The  book  is 
conspicuously  free  from  the  multiplicity  of  confusing  directions  with  which  works  of  the 
kind  too  often  abound.  There  is  an  abundance  of  excellent  illustrations." — New  York 
Scientific  American. 

"The  experiments  are  for  the  most  part  new,  and  have  the  merit  of  combining  pre- 
cision in  the  methods  with  extreme  simplicity  and  elegance  of  design.  The  value  of  the 
book  is  further  enhanced  by  the  numerous  carefully-drawn  cuts,  which  add  greatly  to  its 
beauty."— American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts. 


D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers,  1,  3,  &  5  Bond  Street,  New  York. 


THE  EXPERIMENTAL  SCIENCE  SERIES. 


SOUND: 

A  Series  of  Simple,  Entertaining,  and  Inexpensive  Experiments  in  the  Phe- 
nomena of  Sound,  for  the  Use  of  Students  of  Every  Age. 

By  ALFRED  MARSHALL  MAYER, 

Professor  of  Physics  in  the  Stevens  Institute  of  Technology;  Member  of  the  Kational 
Academy  of  Sciences,  etc. 


Uniform  with  "  LIGHT,"  first  volume  of  the  Series, 


NEAT  12no  VOLUME,  FULLY  ILLUSTRATED.        .        .        .        CLOTH,  PRICE,  $1.00. 


"The  object  of  the  volume  is  to  present  the  leading  phenomena  of  Sound  in  a  simple 
and  entertaining  manner,  by  the  use  of  such  materials  as  are  almost  everywhere  at  hand, 
and  with  apparatus  which  any  ingenious  student  can  construct  for  himself.  To  present 
the  elements  of  an  abstruse  subject  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  the  exposition  easily  com- 
prehensible by  a  mind  not  specially  trained  in  it,  and  at  the  same  time  correct  and  satis- 
factory from  a  scientific  point  of  view,  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  undertakings  in  the 
work  of  an  instructor.  Add  to  this  the  task  of  bringing  the  experimental  illustration  of 
a  science  like  that  of  acoustics,  which  requires  such  refinement  in  the  apparatus  and  its 
manipulation,  within  the  resources  of  every  one,  and  we  have  the  difficulty  very  greatly 
increased.  Professor  Mayer's  well-known  experimental  skill  has  enabled  him  to  accom- 
plish the  work  in  an  admirable  manner,  and  he  has  laid  under  obligation  to  him  not  only 
the  student  and  the  amateur  experimenter,  but  the  teacher,  who  will  derive  many  valuable 
suggestions  as  to  his  own  work  from  this  little  volume.  The  subject  is  arranged  in  a  very 
clear  and  methodical  manner,  and  treated  in  a  vivacious  and  entertaining  style.  The  ex- 
periments, many  of  which  are  novel,  unite  extreme  simplicity  with  elegance  of  conception 
and  scientific  precision,  and  can  not  fail  to  interest  and  stimulate  the  minds  of  the  stu- 
dents into  whose  hands  the  volume  may  fall.  The  illustrations,  which  are  numerous,  are 
excellently  done,  and  give  the  book  a  very  attractive  appearance."— American  Journal  of 
Science  and  Arts. 

"  It  would  really  be  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  merit,  in  the  sense  of  consummate  adapta- 
tion to  its  modest  end,  of  this  little  treatise  on  '  Sound.'  It  teaches  the  youthful  student 
how  to  make  experiments  for  himself,  without  the  help  of  a  trained  operator,  and  at  very 
little  expense.  These  hand-books  of  Professor  Mayer  should  be  in  the  hands  of  every 
teacher  of  the  young."— New  York  Sun 

"An  admirably  clear  and  interesting  collection  of  experiments,  described  with  just  the 
right  amount  of  abstract  information  and  no  more,  and  placed  in  progressive  order.  The 
recent  inventions  of  the  phonograph  and  microphone  lend  an  extraordinary  interest  to  this 
whole  field  of  experiment,  which  makes  Professor  Mayer's  manual  especially  opportune." 
—Boston  Courier. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  PUBLISHERS,  1,  3,  &  5  BOND  STREET,  NEW  YORK. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY,  LOS  ANGELES 
EDUCATION  AND  PSYCHOLOGY  LIBRARY 

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